Garma’s metanoia

In Congress’s hallowed halls, Friday evening, Oct. 11, 2024, at half past 8, retired police Lieut. Col. Royina Garma had a metanoia. A changing of her mind, a breakdown, an epiphany.

She implicated President Rodrigo “Roa” Duterte as the mastermind behind his horrific regime’s thousands of extrajudicial killings with huge cash rewards liberally doled out, for three purposes: one, for officers who executed the kills; two, to finance the operations, and three, refund operational expenses, while replicating nationwide, the so-called Davao model of EJKs, Death Squads that seemingly solved the southern city’s illegal drugs problem.

Victims numbered between 6,200 (police admission) and 30,000 (claims by Human Rights Watch). Most victims were poor, died helpless. Cash rewards (“no secret in the PNP,” said Garma) ranged from P10,000 (for street level pushers and minor government personnel) to P2 million (for illegal drug financiers, wholesalers, and ranking police and military officials).

At P50,000 per kill and 10,000 victims, authorities spent up to P500 million in cash dole outs. The illegal drugs war was not service for country and people. It was “service for profit,” sneered QuadComm member Rep. Romeo M. Acop, a retired police general.

It all began one morning, at 5 a.m. in May 2016. President-elect Duterte summoned Garma to his Doña Luisa subdivision house. He wanted a capable officer to implement a nationwide war on drugs. She suggested Major Edilberto Leonardo, PNPA Class ’96, of the police Criminal and Investigation Group who devised a Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao plan submitted to Duterte’s right hand man, Bong Go. To implement the plan, Leonardo was transferred from Manila to Davao as regional police chief of Region 11 (Davao region).

While mayor of Davao in 1998, Duterte had taken a liking on the beauteous young police officer, then Lieut. Garma, 23, a 1997 graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy, and who was a city police station commander. She would enjoy a rapid rise, from senior officer of the Davao Police, to regional police chief based in Cebu, Central Visayas, where she was accused of her own EJKs, then to a cushy job inside Malacañang’s Office of the President on police matters, and finally to a lucrative early retirement sinecure as general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

In Davao, she sought to annul her marriage to a fellow police officer and adopted a daughter. She denied QuadComm’s queries if she had had any romantic relationship with Duterte.

Garma tried to escape the QuadComm dragnet on Aug. 28, 2024 but was stopped at the airport. (Her US visa was cancelled). Initially, she ignored House summons. During previous appearances (Sept. 12 and Sept. 27, 2024), she was a picture of monstrous defiance and contempt, forcing QuadComm to detain her indefinitely.

Suddenly, after “considerable reflection,” a tearful Garma on Friday decided to finally face the music, and tell the truth before the powerful House Quad Committee on dangerous drugs (chaired by Rep. Robert Ace Barbers), public order and safety (Rep. Dan Fernandez), human rights (Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr.), and public accounts (Rep. Joseph Stephen “Caraps” S. Paduano). Oct. 11’s 14-hour hearing was the longest ever by any committee of the 108-year-old Congress.

In eight hearings, the QuadComm had wanted Garma to clarify three issues: 1) Duterte’s violent war on drugs; 2) her role in the 2016 killing inside the Davao Penal Colony of three Chinese nationals convicted drug lords, lords Chu Kin Tung, Li Lan Yan and Wong Meng Pin (she denied any role); and 3) the 2020 assassination of retired police Gen. Wesley Barayuga, then secretary of the state gaming monopoly Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to which Duterte promoted Garma as its GM. He was about to expose alleged multi-billion corruption in PCSO under Garma.

In her three-page 1,372-word affidavit, Garma claimed to have told “everything I personally know about the war on drugs during the former administration.” Among her revelations to QuadComm made she said, despite fears they could “significantly endanger my life, the safety of my family, and others close to me.”

Leonardo headed the task force from June 2016, using discharged police officers from the Davao region and who collected data on drug personalities. Leonardo decided who should be killed and the amounts of cash rewards. “I saw how these individuals operated,” said Garma. “Leonardo conducted briefings for all PDEA, IG, Regional Directors, and PNP chiefs regarding operations.” “Additionally, if any individual died during police operations, Leonardo reported the incident to Bong Go for inclusion in his weekly report and requests for refunds of operational expenses.” A “Lester Berganio maintained a comprehensive list of drug personalities in the Philippines.”

Bong Go supervised and funded the drugs war on behalf of the President. Special accounts were opened in three banks (in the name of a Peter Parungo) thru which COPLAN funds were coursed and disbursed.

The illegal drugs trade was operated out of the National Penitentiary or BuCor “where numerous drug lords are currently incarcerated,” and had three branches – Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

“Leonardo had the final authority to determine who would be included on the list of drug personalities and to classify their threat levels, as well as the discretion to remove individuals from the list.”

In 2016, drug activities involving BuCor officers at the Davao Penal colony were discussed with Leonardo’s task force. An officer named “Guinto” was subsequently killed along with other Bucor members.

“These are the critical facts I personally know regarding the drug war of the previous administration. I am prepared to provide additional details and information in a supplemental affidavit or during an executive session, at the discretion of the Committee,” Garma volunteered in her affidavit under oath.

While in Congress detention, the feisty much feared retired officer confided, she realized “the truth will set you free.”

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