MANILA, Philippines — The purported state-sanctioned executions during the six-year administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte achieved another case breakthrough near midnight Tuesday after one of his trusted police aides supported the exposé of original whistle-blower, former police colonel Royina Garma.
Retired police colonel Edilberto Leonardo, whom Duterte appointed as National Police Commission (Napolcom) commissioner but who has since resigned, affirmed before Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. that he “believes” Garma’s first and supplemental affidavits.
This brings to three the total number of main witnesses, including retired police colonel Jovie Espenido, who have detailed the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that reached 20,000 until mid-2022 and admitted that such Duterte-sanctioned executions occurred and carried rewards for police.
Leonardo, at the same time, replied “yes” to two questions of Manila 6th District Rep. Benny Abante on whether he agreed with Garma’s two affidavits relating to Oplan: Tokhang and Double Barrel, along with their accompanying rewards for policemen who will carry out the direct hits.
“I’ll ask you two questions answerable only by yes or no. I’m not going to ask any more explanation. Do you believe Garma’s exposé? Second, do you believe in its rewards system?” Abante, who chairs the House of Representatives human rights committee, asked, to which Leonardo replied, “Yes, your honor” both times.
Leonardo confirmed before lawmakers that Duterte indeed organized a meeting in July 2016 where the so-called Davao model of the drug war would be elevated to a national scale, after the latter, a former Davao City mayor, won the presidency in the May 2016 elections.
This also developed as the House quad committee cited in contempt demoted Maj. Leo Laraga for lying after he tried to evade answering direct questions of Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop, who sits as vice chairman of the panel, about the November 2016 raid at Abuyog provincial jail in Leyte.
This is in relation to the alleged murder of Albuera town mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. inside the prison facility, which operatives from the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) raided, but ended up killing him and fellow inmate Raul Yap.
More from Garma
Meanwhile, Garma has further loosened up, unveiling explosive new details about the police reward system for killing drug suspects during the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs, while confirming the covert operations of the notorious Davao Death Squad (DDS).
In her supplemental affidavit, submitted to the quad comm investigating drug-related EJKs during the previous administration, she provided a rare, first-hand account of the violent machinery operating behind the scenes of Duterte’s controversial anti-drug campaign.
Garma, who had served as a police officer in Davao City, confirmed the existence of the DDS, a group long suspected of carrying out EJKs in Duterte’s hometown.
She noted that while the squad was an open secret, police officers were discouraged from discussing it.
“I became aware of the so-called ‘Davao Death Squad’ through various sources during my assignment in Davao,” Garma stated in her affidavit.
“It was common knowledge among officers that almost all station commanders had special teams designated for specific operations. Although I did not know the identities of these teams, a culture of silence prevailed among police officers in Davao regarding such matters,” she added.
This “culture of silence,” according to the former police colonel, extended to police operations, where little to no oversight was maintained over killings conducted in the name of law enforcement.
In her previous affidavit read during the Oct. 11 quad comm hearing, Garma directly implicated Duterte in orchestrating a nationwide campaign that led to the EJKs of drug suspects.
The affidavit not only exposed the alleged reward system that incentivized the killings, but also detailed the role of Duterte in overseeing and coordinating the anti-drug operations.
Garma said cash rewards for drug-related killings ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, depending on the profile of the target – a system that contributed to widespread EJKs and human rights violations that marked Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
PNP collating info
Meanwhile, the PNP is collating the information revealed at the quad comm hearings to strengthen criminal cases it would file for the alleged atrocities in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
PNP public information officer Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo noted that the CIDG is keeping tabs on revelations of Garma and resource persons of the quad comm detailing, among others, a reward system for drug killings.
“The CIDG is really now in the process of collating all the information being revealed during the hearing in the quad comm,” Fajardo said at a news briefing in Camp Crame.
She added that the CIDG would use the information to further strengthen the criminal cases it would file in connection with the killings and other irregularities committed during the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign.
Fajardo maintained that Garma’s revelations of a reward system do not necessarily mean such is rampant in the whole PNP.
“We keep on saying that this is not the norm of the entire organization,” Fajardo said. — Emmanuel Tupas