Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, wife of slain Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo, said Wednesday she agrees with the Justice Department and the Philippine National Police’s plan to make two suspects who gave extrajudicial confessions as state witnesses.

In an interview with dzBB, the mayor said this would help reveal the mastermind behind the death of her husband and eight others.

“Yes, because we can see that as a hope to unmask who is behind the killings. Because if you look at the manner of how my husband was killed along with eight others, that was something that is really well-funded and is the work of not an amateur but someone who earns his living doing it,” she said.

She pointed that the killing took 41 seconds.

''They’re very skilled people. If we will not give them a chance to be a witness under the Witness Protection Program, we (will) fail to uncover it. You know that in our justice system, we need to prove the evidence is beyond reasonable doubt, so we need more words coming from them. Truthful words that have basis and we can only have that if we can assure they’ll stay alive and that they will be given protection,” she added.

Janice said her husband had been receiving threats prior to the shooting incident, even before he took his oath of office after the 2022 election.

She said she believes the person who murdered her husband was threatened him before.

Degamo and eight others were gunned down by armed men wearing pixielized uniforms in his compound at Pamplona, Negros Oriental on Saturday.

Police arrested four suspects. A fifth one died in a firefight with the police and military Saturday night. Jaspearl Tan/DMS