Senate investigation revealed: Teves behind e-sabong, STL

CEBU, Philippines —  In open defiance to Malacanang's directive to stop e-sabong operations nationwide, suspended Negros Oriental Third District Rep. Arnulfo Teves Jr. allegedly continues to operate online gambling activities in Central Visayas and even threatened law enforcers getting in his way.

This was revealed yesterday during the continuation of the public hearing conducted by the Senate committee on public order on the high-profile killings in the province of Negros Oriental, including the brazen attack against Governor Roel Degamo.

Earlier, witnesses told the Senate panel that the spate of killings and other criminal activities in the province were allegedly fueled by the money from illegal online gambling operations of Teves.

Yesterday, NBI-7 director Rennan Augustus Oliva confirmed Teves’ alleged involvement in the illegal online gaming operations. In fact, the suspended congressman reportedly threatened to sue him for alleged theft if they would continue operating against illegal e-sabong.

With printed copies of screenshots of CCTV footage showing Teves and his entourage arriving at his office, Oliva recalled their exchange during Sept. 20, 2022 meeting at the NBI regional office, four days after their raid on a cockpit in Barangay Calajoan in the southern town of Minglanilla, Cebu.

“Hindi kita isasama sa kaso ng mga tao mo pag i-negative mo ang mga order sa iyo na mag operate ng (anti) e-sabong operation,” Oliva told the Senate panel.

“The opening statement of Congressman Teves to me was that he was not connected to e-sabong activities and that he had already delegated to his friends. He then proceeded to ask me who authorize the operation which I told him it was our director in line with the order of our President to stop all the e-sabong activities,” he added.

On September 16, 2022 agents of NBI-7 raided Amenic N’ Calajoan Cockpit in Barangay Calajoan, Minglanilla for violation of PD 1602 in relation to Republic Act 10175 resulting in the arrest of the alleged operators and 37 others and the confiscation of several paraphernalia used in the e-sabong operation like computer and cash amounting to approximately P2.6 million.

According to Oliva, the raid was covered with a search warrant issued by Judge Grace Veloso Fernandez of RTC Branch 19 in Cebu City and upon the instruction of NBI director Medardo De Lemos.

Aside from the court order and Palace directive, Oliva said he informed Teves during their meeting that the cockpit and the website streaming the e-sabong were illegal as they were not registered under the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), which regulates all gambling activities in the country.

“I was surprised at his response to me. He told me that he will sue my men for stealing P7 million during the raid,” Oliva said. “I just laughed. I told him you cannot tell me to betray my oath as a law enforcement officer,” he added.

Oliva said he told Teves that they would answer the charges. True enough, Oliva said, he later learned that there were trumped-up charges against them for allegedly stealing P9 million during the raid.

On the third-hearing day of the Senate panel, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, chairman of the committee, said “there is a reign of terror in your province.”  The senator was referring to Negros Oriental.

“From one person’s story to the next, there appeared to be a discernible pattern. It seemed that the saying was once again proven to be true – violence cannot help but breed even more violence,” he noted. “From the testimonies (of the resource persons on Tuesday), we heard for ourselves how violence in the province appears to have taken both small-scale and large-scale forms,” he said.

Dela Rosa said, “large-scale, in the sense that public officials…Gov. Roel Degamo get gunned down, sometimes even in broad daylight, and even in their own homes. Journalists. There was also small-scale violence.”

“For every single time that we in government have refused to assist, or even listen, at the very least, to those who come to us for help, or for those times that we helped in the covering up of someone else’s crime – they may seem like small acts of rejection, but taken together, they are grave acts of violence. They are acts of injustice, plain and simple,” he added.

Dela Rosa urged the police, the NBI, and other law enforcement agencies to go after illegal e-sabong operations in the country, particularly in Region 7.

“I advise the entire law enforcement authority, cooperate, PNP, NBI, regardless of who is involved. It's not just Teves, end all e-sabong,” said dela Rosa. The senator also instructed law enforcement agencies to use technology if the criminals are using technology.

“Use all your (law enforcement) abilities. They say you can't do it because of technology, use the internet to stop it. It takes technology to outdo a syndicate using technology, fight technology, that is your sworn duty,” dela Rosa said.

According to the senator, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and his predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte, ordered to stop the e-sabong operations nationwide but its operations continue in Central Visayas.

“E-sabong has been stopped all over the Philippines. The operations of e-sabong continue only in that area. They are hard-headed, they don't want to stop e-sabong, even though former president Duterte, President Marcos have told them to stop e-sabong. That operation there in Region 7 is still going on, they are that high and mighty, they are impregnable,” dela Rosa noted.

As a former PNP chief, dela Rosa said the police force is being challenged by the operators of e-sabong in Central Visayas.

“We are being challenged here. You should respond to the challenge,” added dela Rosa, who recalled the committee’s investigation during the 18th Congress on the ill effects of e-sabong on people.

He pointed out that he is against e-sabong, which claimed lives and ruined families.

“Not specifically against Teves, e-sabong is addictive, Philippines will be at the losing end when it proliferates. It’s not narco, but gambling and politics. E-sabong involves a huge amount of money,” dela Rosa said.

Meanhwile, Police Regional Office-7 director Brigadier General Anthony Aberin has ordered Police Captain Allen Germudo, officer-in-charge of Tabuelan Police Station, to appear and cooperate with the ongoing Senate investigation into the alleged political killings in Negros Oriental after he was linked as Teves’ “bagman.”

Mayor Fritz Diaz, of Siaton town, Negros Oriental, named Germudo as the alleged bagman of Teves collecting protection money from e-sabong and STL (small town lottery) operations.

Aberin has already ordered an investigation into the alleged involvement of Germudo in the illegal online gambling operations. Germudo has vehemently denied the allegations and expressed willingness to face the Senate investigation. (CEBU NEWS)