EMOTIONAL Former Police Col. Royina Garma is overcome by feelings as she reads her assertion throughout a Home quad committee listening to on Oct. 11. —Screengrab from HOR dwell streaming
MANILA, Philippines — After her bombshell testimony final week, retired Police Col. Royina Garma obtained a cellphone name from her former commander in chief whose scheme she had simply uncovered.
However as a substitute of issuing a denial or giving her an indignant rebuke, he contacted her simply to partially clarify his actions.
In her persevering with testimony earlier than the Home quad committee, Garma mentioned former President Rodrigo Duterte referred to as her up on Oct. 17 or six days after she confirmed the existence of a reward system behind his brutal warfare on medication.
READ: Leonardo: Rewards system existed; validates Garma’s testimony
However Garma mentioned the ex-president didn’t ask her to cease or retract her exposé, however “merely defined why he needed an Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) police officer” to be a part of the crackdown.
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“[Duterte] simply mentioned it’s as a result of INC members might be entrusted with cash,” she mentioned in reply to questions from ACT Lecturers Rep. France Castro
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Tuesday night time’s revelation was the newest Garma made within the Home inquiry on the Duterte drug warfare.
After the primary few hearings the place she denied wrongdoing, primarily within the killing of three Chinese language drug convicts in 2016, she issued a press release on Oct. 11 confirming the monetary incentives involving the police and employed hit males to have drug suspects killed.
Implication
In response to Garma, who as soon as served within the Davao Metropolis police, Duterte requested her to assist scale up the so-called Davao template of the drug warfare to the nationwide degree, and likewise discover a police official who was additionally an INC member for its implementation.
At Tuesday’s listening to, Garma mentioned these directions led her to Edilberto Leonardo, her former police academy classmate.
“So by inductive reasoning, Mr. Chair, Colonel Leonardo might be trusted with cash. That’s the implication,” Castro mentioned.
Leonardo just lately resigned as head of the Nationwide Police Fee after his identify cropped up within the Home probe.
Referring to the cellphone name she obtained from the previous president, Garma admitted that she had apologized to Duterte for her testimony final week.
To this Castro remarked: “If something, it needs to be him who needs to be saying sorry to the hundreds of individuals, the youth, the harmless folks he had killed.”
Duterte, 79, was invited to Tuesday’s listening to however despatched a letter to the committee saying he couldn’t attend due to well being causes.
‘Tradition of silence’
Additionally on Tuesday night time, Garma submitted a supplemental affidavit to the committee confirming the existence of the Davao Loss of life Squad (DDS).
Named after Duterte’s dwelling metropolis the place he was mayor for a few years, the DDS got here to be recognized to be behind the killings of drug suspects within the metropolis.
Garma mentioned she turned conscious of the DDS “by varied sources throughout my task in Davao.”
“It was widespread data amongst officers that the majority station commanders had particular groups designated for particular operations. Though I didn’t know the identities of those groups, a tradition of silence prevailed amongst law enforcement officials in Davao relating to such issues,” she mentioned.
This “tradition of silence,” Garma mentioned, prolonged to police operations the place drug suspects ended up useless, with little or no oversight over the conduct of the officers concerned.
Her understanding of those operations, she mentioned, additional “solidified” when she was assigned as commander of Davao Metropolis’s Sasa and Sta. Ana police stations from 2012 to 2016.
On the finish of every month, she mentioned, the commanders have been required to submit stories on profitable antidrug operations.
These stories have been wanted to get “reimbursements” for operational bills, just like the buy-bust cash and the price of gasoline.
The disbursement of the funds have been facilitated by a sure “Muking.”
Member of Go workers
Within the Oct. 11 listening to, “Muking” was recognized by Garma as Irmina Espino, a workers member of Duterte’s longtime aide and now Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go.
When Duterte turned president and Go served as his particular assistant, Espino reportedly continued to work for Go on the Palace, getting the rank of assistant secretary in his workplace.
For every operation, Garma mentioned, the station commanders have been reimbursed P5,000.
Having a drug suspect killed meant one other P20,000 for them, and this cash was coursed by one Sonny Buenaventura, “with no signed documentation required,” she mentioned.
Citing one instance, Garma recalled that in 2012 she acquired a name from Police Lt. Col. Padua, an intelligence officer working below then Davao Metropolis police director Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, informing her of an upcoming operation in Barangay Malagamot.
Hours later, she discovered {that a} male suspect linked to a collection of burglaries was killed. For that operation, she acquired P20,000 from an officer she recognized as “Sgt. Suan” and “supplied by Boy Alce.”
No clearance
Garma additionally cited a Davao police operation that killed one other man, a recognized drug person and peddler, close to the GT Gasoline Station in Panacan, an space below her station’s jurisdiction.
“I keep in mind this individual as a result of, within the morning on the day he was killed, the desk officer on obligation knowledgeable me that he went to my workplace and left a picture of the Holy Household (and advised) my males that he had simply gone to Mass and was very joyful,” Garma mentioned. “A number of hours later, he was useless.”
When Garma inquired in regards to the operation, she was advised by Suan that it was “coordinated by Alce.”
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“There was by no means any clearance from my workplace for this operation, neither was my workplace knowledgeable of it,” she mentioned.
