MANILA, Philippines — More than three years after the assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo shocked the country, a Manila court has convicted three men linked to the deadly attack — but the ruling does not yet settle the central question of criminal responsibility for the massacre itself.
The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 40 found Joric Garrido Labrador, Joven Calibjo Javier and Benjie Rodriguez guilty beyond reasonable doubt in separate cases involving the illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives, according to the Department of Justice.
Labrador was sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison for unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition under Republic Act 10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
Javier and Rodriguez, meanwhile, were each sentenced to reclusion perpetua for unlawful possession of explosives under Presidential Decree 1866, as amended by Republic Act 9516.
The decision marks a significant courtroom development stemming from one of the Philippines’ most closely watched political killings in recent years.
But it comes with an important legal distinction: the convictions concern the weapons allegedly recovered after the attack, not the murder charges arising from Degamo’s killing and the deaths of nine other people.
Guns, ammunition and grenades recovered after pursuit
Degamo was meeting constituents and overseeing an aid distribution activity at his residential compound in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, on March 4, 2023, when armed men entered the property and opened fire.
The governor and nine other people were killed, while dozens more were wounded.
Police and military personnel launched a pursuit operation shortly after the attack.
Authorities eventually arrested Labrador, Javier and Rodriguez in Bayawan City. Investigators said they recovered a .45-caliber pistol, two magazines, 14 rounds of live ammunition and two hand grenades from the accused.
Those seizures became central to the separate firearms and explosives prosecutions that ultimately produced the latest convictions.
Court upholds warrantless arrests
One of the critical issues raised during the proceedings was whether authorities legally arrested the men without warrants.
The court upheld the arrests.
According to the DOJ, the judge found that the shooting, investigators’ review of CCTV footage and the subsequent pursuit of suspected getaway vehicles formed a continuous sequence of events that justified the law-enforcement operation.
The court also ruled that prosecutors sufficiently established the identification and handling of the confiscated weapons through testimony from police officers and other witnesses.
Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida welcomed the convictions, saying that impunity should not prevail over justice and that those who violate the law would be held accountable.
What does ‘reclusion perpetua’ actually mean?
Some reports have loosely described the sentences imposed on Javier and Rodriguez as either “20 years,” “up to 40 years” or “life imprisonment.”
Under Philippine law, however, those descriptions are not exactly interchangeable.
Article 27 of the Revised Penal Code provides that reclusion perpetua has a duration of 20 years and one day to 40 years. Philippine Supreme Court jurisprudence has also repeatedly distinguished reclusion perpetua from the separate penalty technically known as life imprisonment.
That distinction is important in reporting the verdict accurately.
The murder case is a different battle
The latest convictions should also not be read as a final judgment on who was criminally responsible for killing Degamo and the other victims.
Labrador, Javier and Rodriguez are among those separately charged in connection with the massacre with offenses including murder, frustrated murder and attempted murder.
DZRH reported this week, citing DOJ spokesperson Polo Martinez, that the murder-related proceedings involving the men and other accused have been transferred from Manila RTC Branch 51 to Branch 17, where proceedings are continuing and the court is considering bail-related matters.
Former Negros Oriental congressman Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. is also an accused in the Degamo massacre case.
Teves has denied involvement in Degamo’s killing.
He was brought back to the Philippines in 2025 after staying in Timor-Leste and remains detained while facing the Degamo-related charges and other criminal cases. Earlier court rulings granting him bail or acquitting him in separate cases involving killings from 2019 did not dispose of the pending Degamo prosecution, the Justice Department has previously stressed.
Earlier recantations added another layer to the case
The prosecution of the Degamo killing has faced complications from the beginning.
In 2023, several accused — including Labrador, Javier and Rodriguez — affirmed sworn statements recanting earlier testimony that had implicated Teves, according to GMA News.
Those recantations became one of the major legal and evidentiary issues surrounding the broader massacre case.
The latest firearms and explosives convictions therefore carry significance beyond the prison terms themselves.
They show that prosecutors were able to obtain guilty verdicts on charges arising from evidence recovered during the immediate aftermath of the attack, even while the much larger murder prosecution continues through the courts.
A conviction — but not yet the final answer
For Degamo’s family and the families of the nine others killed in Pamplona, the Branch 40 decision represents another judicial step more than three years after the massacre.
Yet it is not the final reckoning.
The firearms verdict establishes criminal liability for the illegal gun, ammunition and explosives offenses prosecuted in those cases. It does not, by itself, determine who ordered the attack, who participated in the killings or whether every accused in the separate murder case is guilty.
Those questions remain for another court to decide.
And that may ultimately be the most consequential part of the Degamo case still ahead.
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