DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor said Thursday it would deport a former Filipino congressman charged with multiple murders in the Philippines and added that he was a national security threat whose presence could damage the country’s image ahead of its entry to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Ex-Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. was arrested in East Timor’s capital of Dili on Wednesday by immigration authorities and would immediately be deported to the Philippines for staying without a visa and after his passport was cancelled by Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs, the East Timor government said in a statement.
East Timor did not immediately specify a date for the deportation of Teves, who has been staying in Dili for more than two years as he tried to seek asylum, straining relations between the two Southeast Asian democracies. The Philippines has been calling on East Timor to repatriate Teves to face trial.
The Department of Justice in Manila on Thursday welcomed East Timor’s decision and said it has designated a team of justice and immigration officials to help repatriate Teves.
East Timor said in a statement that Teves’ presence in the country was “unacceptable” and his stay for more than two years “poses a disruptive factor in bilateral relations between the two states and establishes a serious precedent with potential implications for internal security.”
“The perception that Timor-Leste might be viewed as a refuge for individuals fleeing international justice undermines the integrity of our borders and our shared efforts to combat transnational crime,” East Timor said, using the country’s formal name.
“The imminent full accession of Timor-Leste to ASEAN, scheduled for October this year, further reinforces the responsibility of the Timorese state to actively collaborate with its regional partners in upholding justice, legality, and stability in the region,” according to East Timor.
East Timor President José Ramos-Horta told The Associated Press in an interview in Dili in September that there was “no possibility, under the law” that Teves would be able to remain in East Timor and that he would likely be sent back to the Philippines after his appeal to gain asylum had been exhausted.
Teves has been sought by the Philippine government in connection with the March 2023 killings of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and several other people, including impoverished villagers seeking medical aid from him, by men in military camouflage and body armor who barged into his central Philippine home with assault rifles. At least 17 others were wounded in the brazen attack, which was captured on security cameras.
Teves has denied involvement in the killings, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who was backed by Degamo, then called “purely political.”
East Timor, Asia’s youngest country, is in the process of joining the Philippines and nine other countries in the ASEAN, a regional grouping which espouses the rule of law and good governance. It currently has observer status in the regional bloc.
Teves’ initial request to seek asylum in East Timor was rejected, a decision which he appealed. In March 2024, police arrested Teves while he was playing at a golf driving range in Dili and it’s not immediately clear how he managed to regain liberty before bring put into custody by immigration authorities on Wednesday.
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Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
