A “woman disguised as a meek lamb, but deep inside her, she is a ruthless killer.”
That was how Rep. Johnny Pimentel of Surigao Del Sur described Royina Garma, former general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and a retired police lieutenant colonel.
Facing intense questioning before the House quad committee, the 51-year-old Garma has been accused of serious crimes from nepotism to corruption to murder. She apparently exemplifies the qualities of persons trusted by former president Rodrigo Duterte, based on the accounts of witnesses testifying in the legislative inquiries at the Senate and the House of Representatives.
After listening to testimonies against Garma before the quad committee, Pimentel came to the conclusion that the former police officer was “killing without mercy innocent people, killing without remorse innocent victims, especially in the war on drugs.”
Pimentel cited the testimony last Friday of Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza of the Police Drug Enforcement Group that Garma supposedly masterminded the assassination of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga, a former police general, on orders of Col. Edilberto Leonardo, a commissioner at the National Police Commission (Napolcom), and her involvement in the killing of three convicted Chinese drug lords at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in August 2016.
Inmates Leopoldo Tan Jr. and Fernando Magdadaro testified before the quad committee on August 22 and provided detailed accounts of how they stabbed Chu Kin Tung, Li Lan Yan and Wong Meng Pin inside the Davao prison following orders from senior police officer Arthur Narsolis.
Garma and Leonardo have denied Mendoza’s statements, saying they would not give such an illegal order. They have also claimed innocence in the killing of the Chinese drug lords.
Pimentel also cited that when Garma was assigned to Cebu City, there were 198 recorded killings, as reported by former Mayor Tommy Osmeña.
The four House committees — dangerous drugs, public order and safety, human rights and public accounts — were conducting their seventh joint public hearing into the interlocking issues of illegal Philippine online gaming operators (POGOs), illegal drug trade and extrajudicial killings under the administration of then-president Duterte.
Garma had it so good under Duterte since her stint in Davao City, where she first served, freshly graduated from the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), as head of the city’s anti-vice unit in 1997.
She must have become the most popular member of her clan for having appointed her daughter as “confidential agent” at the PCSO and several of her relatives in the state-run charity corporation.
Who would have thought that somebody who led the Davao City police’s women and children’s protection desk and an officer for the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Metro Manila and Davao from 2004 to 2007 would now be embroiled in multiple murder cases apart from corruption, during her stint at the PCSO from 2019 to 2022?
She seems to fit the description of being “so young and so corrupt.”
Congressmen grilling the witnesses of Garma’s alleged involvement in illicit activities got an impression of her closeness to Duterte.
While being questioned by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, Mendoza said he could not control his tears and the shaking of his body while reading his opening statement and affidavit because of the heavy burden of following an order by his upperclassman to do something that could ruin his life.
Asked why that is so, Mendoza said: “Eh, kasi po pumatay kami ng inosente.” He said he feared disobeying Leonardo and Garma because of their perceived influence with Duterte.
Leonardo was among the five former and current ranking police officers who have been tagged as suspects in the International Criminal Court’s investigation of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. The four others are Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, who served as PNP chief from 2016 to 2018, former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, former PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Romeo Caramat, and the director of the PNP’s Drug Enforcement Group, Eleazar Mata.
Given the testimonies against Garma and Leonardo, it seems impossible for them to get away from the very serious accusations they are now facing after years of enjoying their powerful positions with the blessings of higher officials, who, too, should be held to account for the injustice and abuses they have committed.
As Duterte’s former spokesman Harry Roque once wished: “May [they] spend the rest of [their] life in jail.”
Ironically, Roque has also been linked to some illegal activities involving POGOs.
Indeed, you can’t do ugly things to people and expect to live a beautiful life. There is such a thing as karma.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.
