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Expelled Negros Oriental 3rd District representative Arnolfo Teves, along with his legal counsel, Atty. Ferdie Topacio, and his mother, Zenaida Teves, attend a press conference at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Headquarters in Pasay City on May 30, 2025.
STAR / Ryan Baldemor
MANILA, Philippines — There is no special treatment for expelled Negros Oriental representative Arnolfo Teves Jr., who is currently detained at the Bureau of Corrections compound in Muntinlupa while waiting to appear before a court for arraignment for multiple murder, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.
While NBI director Jaime Santiago said at Friday’s press conference that Teves would be staying alone in the NBI facility in Building 14, the former lawmaker is currently sharing a cell with another inmate.
The former Negros Oriental representative was transported back to the Philippines on Thursday from Timor-Leste, where he had been hiding for two years, after Dili ordered his “immediate deportation” for being a “threat to national security and interests.”
Teves is facing multiple murder charges for allegedly masterminding the assassination of his political rival, Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo, in the town of Pamplona on March 4, 2023.
According to the NBI, Teves is staying in a 10-square-meter cell with a bunk bed, a common toilet bowl and a small electric fan, just like any other cell.
Teves will remain in the facility until authorities return the warrant for his arrest and notify the court that he is now under the bureau’s custody, in accordance with standard procedures.
Teves’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said he feels reassured that his client is being cared for by NBI officials, given his “peculiar circumstances.”
“Our fears of Teves being endangered were quelled with NBI’s noted professionalism and assurances of director Santiago, his staff and the warden,” Topacio told reporters on Friday.
“I saw the facilities myself and while he is here, I know he’ll be safe,” Topacio stressed.
Santiago, meanwhile, maintained that the expelled representative’s extradition is bound by law and only Timor-Leste is accountable for any infractions regarding Teves’s arrest.
“As far as we’re concerned, an order is issued to extradite Teves and return him to the Philippines,” the NBI chief told dwAR on Friday.
Before Teves boarded a Philippine Air Force plane bound for the Philippines, Topacio showed an order from the Timor-Leste Court of Appeals granting the former lawmaker’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, meaning Teves should have been presented to a court within 48 hours.
The Court of Appeals twice granted the Philippine government’s request to extradite Teves in June and December 2024, before reversing its decision in March after his legal team filed an appeal.
The Timor-Leste government promptly handed over Teves to Philippine authorities, with President José Ramos-Horta emphasizing that his expulsion would eliminate the perception that the country is a “refuge for individuals fleeing international justice.”
Teves’ arrest, which his camp labeled as “kidnapping,” came a day after President Marcos met with Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
