Bato on Teveses, Degamos: Nobody is clean

MANILA, Philippines — Neither the Degamo nor the Teves clan in Negros Oriental can claim to be “absolutely clean” of blood from the killings in the province in the past years, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said yesterday.

Dela Rosa, who chairs the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, made the observation after finally wrapping up the panel’s inquiry into the assassination of governor Roel Degamo last March 4. The alleged mastermind, suspended congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr., remains in hiding.

“Nobody can claim from both camps that they are absolutely clean because there are allegations that really have weight and truth,” the senator told reporters partly in Filipino. “So these (allegations) must be looked into through the follow up of concerned agencies.”

The grueling Senate probe lasted five hearings, three of which were on consecutive days, each lasting more than eight hours. Many witnesses were flown via a military C-130 from Negros Oriental to have them testify in the inquiry.

“This could have been shortened, but to tell you all frankly, that is not how I operate. All my life, I have been trained in endurance – enduring poverty, enduring war, enduring the challenges of a public, political life,” the senator said at the close of the inquiry.

“To take upon myself the responsibility of listening to the testimony of each one is a task that I have willingly accepted. I have exercised utmost patience and tolerance, not for the sake of siding with anyone, but for the sake of the truth. Nothing but the truth,” he said.

Dela Rosa lamented that in the course of the hearings, the more it became apparent how “life has become cheap” in Negros Oriental.

During the hearing, it was also learned that even as the inquiry was being conducted and additional police officers have been sent to the province, there continues to be episodic violence in the province that prompted the Commission on Elections to consider the request of senators to place the area under its control ahead of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October.

The inquiry heard the side of the Degamos, mainly from Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, the widow of the governor, and allies of the Teveses.

While the Teveses were portrayed as having dipped their fingers into illegal gambling and other criminal activities and allegedly gunning down their political opponents, other witnesses pointed to the Degamos as doing the same, including the assassination of a local journalist that was blamed on the late governor.