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Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star
April 18, 2026 | 12:00am
Expelled Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves attends a press conference at the National Bureau of Investigation Headquarters in Pasay City on May 30, 2025.
The STAR / Ryan Baldemor
MANILA, Philippines — A Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Manila allowed expelled lawmaker Arnolfo Teves Jr. and two of his co-accused to post bail in a murder case related to the killing of his former bodyguard and alleged hitman in 2019.
In a 27-page ruling, the RTC Branch 30 found inconsistencies in the statements linking the three to the killing of Pacito Libron in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental on June 23, 2019.
The prosecution “failed to show, establish and prove that the evidence of guilt is strong as to each accused in this case for the crime charged against them which is murder,” Judge Ryan Philipp Bartolome wrote in the resolution.
The court set the bail for Teves at P500,000, and P250,000 each for his co-accused Richard Cuadra and Rolando Pinili.
Teves is facing a separate charge for the murder of former Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo and nine others on March 4, 2023 in Pamplona town.
In ruling on the 2019 case, the court said state witness Gemuel Hobro “was riddled with inconsistencies as he kept on changing his answers on multiple occasions.”
Hobro “testified on several matters that were not contained in his extrajudicial confession and supplemental affidavit, which shows that these documents had a lot of missing details which are essential to the case,” the court said.
Judge Bartolome also saw a mismatch in the testimonies of prosecution witness Rustico Guerian Jr., who claimed he saw Cuadra shoot Libron, and Libron’s widow who said the faces of the assailants were covered.
“As between a bystander who just happened to be there when the incident transpired, and the victim’s wife who was a backrider at the time her husband was fatally gunned down, the court is inclined toward the widow’s testimony, considering she witnessed the incident first hand and at point-blank distance,” a part of the resolution reads.
The court said it does not see any basis for the prosecution’s claim that Teves conspired in killing Libron.
The court has set the next hearing on June 23, Libron’s seventh death anniversary. — Andrew Ronquillo
