Former lawmaker Arnolfo Teves Jr. is now detained at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City after two years of evading Philippine authorities after the death of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo. From the United States, Teves Jr. refused to come home to face an investigation and ended up in Timor Leste, fighting all efforts to bring him back to face his accusers.
Teves is facing 10 counts of murder, 13 counts of frustrated murder, and four counts of attempted murder before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 51. There are others: one count of murder each before Manila RTC Branches 12 and 15, and another before Bayawan RTC Branch 63. He is also charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, as well as with the violation of the Terrorist Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.
The end came for Teves Jr. last week, when he was arrested in his home in Dili and deported to Manila Thursday night. Videos shared by his son show Teves resisting authorities. On Friday, he faced Philippine media and was able to speak to – and embrace – his mother who had not seen him in all the time he was on the run.
Teves’ case is just the latest in the series of recent high-profile arrests. In September last year, the disgraced pastor and Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder Apollo Quiboloy was arrested – even as his camp insists he surrendered – after a two-week standoff at the KOJC compound. He was shielded by his group’s members who remained loyal to him and convinced of his innocence despite standing warrants for sexual abuse and coercion, trafficking, and money laundering.
This so-called appointed son of God ran for the Senate during last month’s elections but lost. Five million Filipinos voted for him nonetheless.
And then of course, in March, former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested as he returned from Hong Kong, and was flown to The Hague in the Netherlands where he now awaits trial for crimes against humanity, committed in the context of his war on drugs.
Duterte’s camp fought the arrest, too, in various ways, even resorting to disinformation about the facts of the cases, demonizing the judges of the ICC, and framing the arrest as persecution. Mr. Duterte is now the mayor-elect of Davao City despite the improbability of leading his city as its chief executive.
These arrests were made so that the accused personalities could answer the allegations made against them and establish their innocence, if indeed they are innocent. Their prior attempts to evade arrest and to mock the justice system does no good for the innocence they so vehemently claim.
But there is another prominent personality still on the run – for instance, former Duterte spokesperson Harry Roque. He has refused to continue showing up at the House of Representatives to clarify his role in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, or POGOs, fled the country, and curiously showed up at The Hague following Duterte’s arrival there.
Now Roque, who was, oddly, a human rights lawyer earlier in his career, is now wanted by a Pampanga court for qualified trafficking in persons. He maintains his innocence and has in fact applied for asylum in the Netherlands, citing political persecution.
In the end, one can only avoid the reach of the law for so long. One cannot hide indefinitely. The deeds committed in one’s past would come back to haunt them in numerous ways.
It is a source of comfort that some of these big names are now in custody. But there are plenty out there – Roque, and all others who think they have gotten away with the consequences of their actions. Their victims and the kin of these victims, and society itself, deserve the closure of their arrest, of a satisfactory trial, and, if proven guilty, conviction and punishment.
