EDITORIAL — Truth and politics

The Philippine Military Academy’s “Matikas” Class of 1983 commended yesterday the so-called quad committee of the House of Representatives. It was not over funding or any other form of assistance granted by the committee to the PMA batch. Instead, the group issued a statement thanking the quad for the probe “that finally identified the alleged suspects” in the assassination of a member of the class, Wesley Barayuga, on July 30, 2020 in Mandaluyong.

The Matikas class should also thank political warfare, which paved the way for the scrutiny of a murder whose probe by the police from the outset bore marks of a possible cover-up.

Barayuga was a retired one-star general in the Philippine National Police when he was recruited by his PMA classmate or mistah, Anselmo Pinili, to join the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office as secretary of the PCSO board. Pinili, himself a retired general, was the PCSO chairman.

Facing the quad hearing last week, Pinili testified that Barayuga locked horns with the PCSO general manager at the time, retired PNP colonel Royina Garma, over the issuance of PCSO board certificates to Small Town Lottery franchises. Pinili said Barayuga refused to sign certificates without full board approval as Garma wanted.

After Barayuga was assassinated, Pinili said he reported this possible motive to Malacañang, to then president Rodrigo Duterte’s special assistant Bong Go and chief legal counsel Jesus Melchor Quitain. The police probe, however, appeared to hit a blank wall.

Last week, a PNP official blew the whistle. Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza told the quad committee that it was Garma who ordered Barayuga’s murder. Mendoza testified that the order and P300,000 payment for the hit were coursed through another police colonel, Edilberto Leonardo, currently a commissioner at the National Police Commission. At the time, Mendoza was detailed with the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, which was carrying out a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs. Mendoza said he was the one who hired the assassin.

Until recently, this probe would not have been possible. Barayuga had been tagged in the previous administration as a high-value drug personality. In those days, such a description spelled the end of a murder probe. Garma was untouchable. She has denied having an affair with Duterte, but her appointment to the PCSO with thin qualifications has long been seen as a manifestation of her close ties with the former president.

Garma and other officers suspected of involvement in extrajudicial killings remained safe from indictment even under the Marcos administration – until its alliance with the Dutertes crumbled. Today, people are glad that the truth is finally trickling out. But it would be better if the nation need not wait for political rifts before the truth can be ferreted out and justice genuinely pursued.