<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>A former Filipino congressman accused of masterminding the killings of a provincial governor and several others has been arrested in East Timor and will be deported to the Philippines, Philippine justice officials said on Friday.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police arrested Arnolfo Teves Jr. while he was playing at a golf driving range on Thursday in East Timor’s capital of Dili, where he has tried to seek asylum, the Philippine Department of Justice said.&nbsp; His arrest had been sought through an Interpol red notice asking police worldwide to locate and apprehend him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Teves is facing murder charges in connection with the killings of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight other people, including some seeking aid at his home in Pamplona town in March last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At least 17 others, including a doctor and two army soldiers, were wounded in the attack, police</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">said then. At least six men armed with assault rifles and wearing military camouflage and bullet-resistant vests walked calmly into Degamo’s residential compound.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They opened fire in an attack that was captured on security cameras.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shooters fled in three SUVs, and authorities later announced the capture of several suspects.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Teves denied any involvement in the killing of Degamo and the other victims and said without elaborating that he was set up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The killings refocused attention on the country’s bloody political conflicts, which have been exacerbated by the existence of private armies and large numbers of illegal firearms, especially in the countryside.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said then that the attack on Degamo, who backed his presidential candidacy, was “purely political.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Marcos commended Philippine law enforcers and their international counterparts for the arrest of Teves.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said his administration would work to bring him back to the country and “spare no effort in ensuring that justice will prevail in this case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said that Teves’s apprehension “is a testament to the power of international cooperation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It sends a clear message that no terrorist can evade justice and that nations stand united in safeguarding the safety and security of their citizens.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remulla asked Teves to face trial without conditions and “face the courts squarely.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Teves has separately been implicated in the killings of three people in 2019 in Negros Oriental and violations of the country’s gun and explosives law after authorities found assault weapons and ammunition in his family’s residential compound.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Crimes and decades-long insurgencies were some of the daunting problems inherited by Marcos.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In one of the country’s deadliest episodes of political violence, nearly 200 armed followers led by members of a powerful political clan blocked a convoy of a rival political family in southern Maguindanao province ahead of local elections in 2009.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gunmen then led the 58 victims, including 32 media workers, to a nearby hilltop, where all were gunned down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A court convicted detained key members of the Ampatuan family a decade later, but many suspects in the attack remain at large. - AP&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/fas</div>