Photos courtesy of Joint Task Force Negros

Photos courtesy of Joint Task Force Negros

Photos courtesy of Joint Task Force Negros

Photos courtesy of Joint Task Force Negros

MANILA — Authorities recovered more firearms and ammunition on the third day of a search on a sugar mill supposedly owned by former Negros Oriental governor Pryde Henry Teves on Sunday.

Personnel from the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) conducted another raid on Teves' compound Sunday evening, this time near the sugar mill's molasses tank.

According to a PNP-CIDG report released on Monday, the following items were recovered from the third day of the search:

• A short arm with 24 pieces of live ammunition
• 3 magazines
• A disassembled pistol
• A shotgun with 29 ammunitions

Around 2,000 live bullets were also recovered from the latest raid.

PNP-CIDG operatives have been implementing a search warrant on the compound since Friday, where they earlier recovered multiple long firearms, ammunition, and a rocket-powered grenade from an underground stash.

Authorities also discovered cash of up to P18 million in the raid, and arrested 3 individuals supposedly part of the former governor's security detail.

The suspects, along with the weapons and contraband seized from Friday's and Saturday's raids, were transported to Manila on Sunday.

"It's a vast area," PNP-CIDG chief legal officer P/Col. Thomas Valmonte had told reporters when asked why the search took days.

Former governor Teves earlier said 200 houses were within the 50-hectare raided compound, where employees of the sugar mill and their relatives were staying.

He had maintained innocence over the guns, ammunition, and explosives confiscated in the area, saying he was willing to cooperate with investigators and would open an internal investigation on who had entered and exited his compound prior to the raid.

But Valmonte said they had an informant in custody who tipped them off on the stash of firearms and explosives in Teves' compound.

The informant had also claimed that it was Teves who allegedly ordered them to bury some of the recovered weapons underground.

He also said that police would place the recovered firearms and explosives under ballistic and laboratory tests to determine if these had been used in shooting incidents previously reported in Negros Oriental.

Valmonte also said that they were now looking at an "intention of terrorism" with the recovery of some explosives.

"Iyong pampasabog, actually, when you possess it, you are intending to use it, definitely, kasi ina-assemble ‘yan eh saka hindi naman biro ang bumili ng mga explosive powder so we are looking into angle of acts of terrorism here,” he told reporters before leaving for Manila Sunday.

(Those explosives, actually, when you possess it, you are intending to use it, definitely, because these are being assembled and it's not easy to purchase explosive powder so we are looking into angle of acts of terrorism here.)

Teves, who Degamo unseated in a recount of the May 2022 gubernatorial race, is the brother of suspended Negros Oriental Third District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr.

Rep. Teves was earlier implicated in Degamo's murder, although he had previously denied involvement in the crime.

But Valmonte reiterated that their search on the former governor's property had nothing to with the Degamo slay case and was only part of their "Oplan Paglalansag Omega," the CIDG's campaign against illegally possessed firearms and explosives.

• More firearms, explosives seized in raid on Teves sugar mill
• 3 security personnel linked to ex-Gov. Teves nabbed in raid

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