Comelec places Negros Oriental in elections watchlist
DUMAGUETE CITY – The Commission on Elections has placed Negros Oriental on its watch list amid a political contest between sworn political enemies, the widow of slain governor 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,” said Negros Island Region Commission on Elections 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, has 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 named as alleged mastermind in the governor’s assassination 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 Degamo 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 Okay
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 okay 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 when he was governor, right in his house like a gated fortress with high fences, CCTV cameras, guards everywhere. But these people just entered our compound and gunned down my husband while he was serving the people,” 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.
Sagarbarria’s wife, Dumaguete Vice Mayor Ma. Isabel Longa-Sagarbarria, will be competing with outgoing Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo, the father of Dio, for the post of second District representative. WITH A REPORT FROM KAYE BRIER
