At least 13 more criminal charges will be filed against those responsible in the March 4 gun attack that killed Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight others, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos said on Monday, March 13.
In a press briefing, Abalos explained that charges are in addition to the 17 charges already filed against the gunmen in the carnage-- six for frustrated murder, eight for murder, one for illegal possession of firearms and two for illegal possession of explosives.
"There are a total of 27 victims. Nine died, 15 were hit quite seriously and then three were attempted murders. We are completing more charges for filing -- one for murder, nine for frustrated murder, three for attempted murder for a total of 13 more cases are now being studied here for filing,” Abalos said.
However, Abalos declined to name the mastermind behind the attack but stressed that authorities have strong leads that would put the men behind the slaying incident.
“Mahirap pangalanan. Huwag muna natin pangalanan kasi anyone is presumed innocent until his guilt is proven hindi ba. So antayin na lang natin lumabas (of the investigation). Anyway nagfile naman ng kaso. I do hope bumilis na lang ito at kung mailabas ito, ididivulge namin ito (It is difficult to name names. Let us not name him or them yet since anyone is presumed innocent until guilt is proven guilty. So let us just wait for the result. Anyway, we already filed the cases. I do hope that the result will come out soon and if it is revealed we will divulge this),’’ Abalos assured.
Abalos said an inter-agency task force is carefully working on the case to make sure that all the bases are covered to ensure that airtight charges would be filed against the perpetrators, specifically the masterminds.