Negros Oriental now under Comelec watch

Negros Island Region Comelec Regional Director Lionel Marco Castillano

DUMAGUETE CITY, NEGROS ORIENTAL, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has placed Negros Oriental on its watch list amid a political contest between sworn political enemies, the widow of slain Gov. Roel Degamo and the Teves families.

“We can say that there will be intense political rivalry provincewide considering that Pryde Henry Teves is running for governor,” Negros Island Region Comelec Regional Director Lionel Marco Castillano said on Monday.

Degamo’s widow has crossed political districts to contest the congressional seat of the main suspect in her husband’s murder.

Janice Vallega Degamo, mayor of Pamplona town in the second district, filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) on Tuesday for representative of the third district, a post left vacant after Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr., who fled the country after he was named as an alleged mastermind in Degamo’s murder in March 2023, was expelled by the House of Representatives last year.

Degamo’s widow will be contesting the seat against another Janice and a scion of the Teves clan, Janice Teves-Gaston, an aunt of brothers Arnie and Pryde Henry; and an independent candidate, Reynaldo Palarpalar Lopez.

Family and supporters had been asking the mayor to run for governor but her husband’s successor and ally, now incumbent Gov. Manuel “Chaco” Sagarbarria, will run for the post under their team.

Sagarbarria will run against Pryde Henry (Liberal Party), a former governor who initially won the seat in 2022 but whose proclamation was annulled by the Comelec after a recount and named Roel the winner.

Also seeking the gubernatorial post in 2025 are newcomers, Stephen Tuballa and Josemarie Jaos.

Mayor Degamo and her team are running under the administration party, Lakas-CMD.

Still OK

Speaking to supporters after a Mass at her husband’s tomb in their family compound in Barangay Bonawon, Siaton, before filing her candidacy, the mayor said she was doing this for her husband. “I’m doing this for you (pointing at the slain Governor’s tomb), I’m doing this because I want to live in peace,” she said. “If no one would dare take that challenge, where will we be in the coming days?”

“We’re still OK now because we have not been threatened yet, no one has grabbed your respective properties yet, but always remember what happened to Roel: he was gunned down … right in his house…,” she recalled.

Elsewhere in Negros Oriental, last-term Second District Rep. Manuel “Chiquiting” Sagarbarria, the father of the incumbent governor, is running for mayor of the capital Dumaguete City against lawyer Felipe Claudio “Dio” Remollo (Liberal), a young Manila-based chief of staff of Speaker Martin Romualdez. —with a report from Kaye Brier