The violence had roots in the contested 2022 gubernatorial election. Degamo, running for a fourth term, initially lost to Pryde Henry Teves, who was proclaimed governor. But Degamo filed an electoral protest before the Commission on Elections, and a recount followed. During the recount, votes cast for a similarly named nuisance candidate -- Ruel Degamo, whose candidacy appeared designed to siphon votes -- were attributed to Roel Degamo. The final tally reversed the result. Teves's proclamation was nullified, and Degamo assumed office. The reversal left deep political wounds in a province already scarred by factional rivalries and a history of political killings. Two power structures now claimed legitimacy in Negros Oriental, and the tensions between them would prove lethal.

The attackers struck without warning. Degamo was shot multiple times and rushed to Negros Polymedic Hospital in Sibulan, where he was pronounced dead at 11:41 a.m. Among the other victims were a barangay councilor and a civilian mistaken for one of the governor's bodyguards -- people whose only misfortune was being in the wrong place at the worst possible moment. By mid-March, Degamo was interred in his family mausoleum in Siaton, his hometown. The investigation that followed would unravel a conspiracy stretching from provincial politics to international fugitive pursuits.

Eleven suspects, all former military personnel, were taken into custody. Two of them named a certain "Cong Teves" as the mastermind, testifying that they had been told the governor was a drug lord. Arnie Teves, the representative of Negros Oriental's 3rd district, was abroad at the time and refused to return. The House of Representatives suspended him, then unanimously expelled him in August 2023 -- the first such expulsion since the 1987 Constitution restored Congress. The Anti-Terrorism Council designated Teves and twelve associates as terrorists, another first for an elected official. An Interpol red notice followed in February 2024.

Teves was arrested in Dili, Timor-Leste, in March 2024. Because the Philippines has no extradition treaty with the small Southeast Asian nation, his case became a diplomatic puzzle. An initial extradition approval was overturned by a Timorese appellate court in March 2025. But on May 28, 2025, Teves was rearrested at his Dili residence and deported that same night. The Timor-Leste government declared him a threat to national security and imposed a ten-year entry ban. He arrived in the Philippines the next day and was detained at New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, later transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa. The legal proceedings continue, with 39 complaints filed in connection with the massacre.

The Pamplona massacre exposed the lethal stakes of Philippine provincial politics, where electoral disputes can escalate from courtroom protests to mass violence. Ten people died -- a governor, a barangay official, ordinary citizens who came for government assistance on a Saturday morning. Their families received financial assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, but no amount of aid compensates for lives taken in a hail of gunfire. President Bongbong Marcos attended Degamo's wake and ordered a special panel of prosecutors to investigate killings across Negros Oriental. Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos directed the replacement of all police personnel in the province. Senate President Migz Zubiri called the shooting an act of political terrorism. For Pamplona and the wider province, the massacre left a wound that legal proceedings alone cannot close.