FEELING THE HEAT, TOO Then Negros Oriental Gov. Pryde Henry Teves speaks to reporters in October 2022, after the Commission on Elections nullified his proclamation in June that year. —Denniz Futalan/CONTRIBUTOR
CEBU CITY — Two weeks after police raided suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr.’s properties in the province, operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) swooped this time on the estate of his younger brother, also finding there a cache of unlicensed firearms and assorted ammunition.
Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 7 (CIDG-7) on Friday seized at least 10 firearms, including three rifles, as well as ammunition for 9mm and .45-caliber pistols, an M-14 rifle and a shotgun, when they raided the property of former Gov. Pryde Henry Teves, younger brother of the suspended congressman.
Assisting the CIDG operatives were the Special Action Force also of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Army’s 11th Infantry Battalion.
According to Lawyer Thomas Valmonte, chief legal officer of CIDG-7, P17 million in cash was also confiscated in the course of that operation.
He said the 5-hectare property in Barangay Caranoche, Sta. Catalina town, included a sugar mill operated by HDJ Bayawan Agri-Venture Corp. of which Pryde Henry is president.
The early morning raid followed two weeks after a series of raids at dawn of March 10, also a Friday, by CIDG operatives who went after loose firearms allegedly belonging to the older Teves.
Valmonte said at least three persons were arrested for possession of unlicensed firearms.
On Thursday the CIDG obtained a search warrant issued by Executive Judge Allan Francisco Garciano of Branch 83 of the Regional Trial Court in Mandaue City.
Garciano is the same judge who issued the search warrants on the March 10 raids conducted in two homes in Bayawan City belonging to Arnolfo Jr. and a resort also said to be in his name in Basay town.
As of 3 p.m., the CIDG was still conducting a search at Pryde Henry’s home in that property. He was not there during that raid—which, according to Valmonte, had nothing to do with Degamo’s killing.
“What we are doing is still pursuant to the flagship project of the CIDG against illegal possession of firearms,” he said.
‘Same treatment’
The older Teves has been named the mastermind by the detained suspects in the March 4 assassination of his political rival, former Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo.
The slain politician assumed the governorship in October last year after the Commission on Elections nullified Pryde Henry’s proclamation when it credited to Degamo the votes for a nuisance candidate who went by his name.
The congressman’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, claimed last week that authorities were moving to “harass” Pryde Henry by applying “the same treatment” to which the congressman was subjected two weeks ago.
Soon after the March 10 raid, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said that the operation was in connection with the charges that had been filed against the older Teves for the murders in 2019 of at least three people, including a provincial board member.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the weapons recovered from Pryde Henry’s property will be submitted to the Firearms and Explosives Office to verify if these are registered to the PNP’s database.
RELATED STORIES
Authorities raid houses of Rep. Teves due to loose firearms
Rep. Teves, six others face raps for seized firearms during March 10 raid
6 of Teves’ associates in police custody — PNP