Former Police Colonel Royina Garma attended the fifth hearing of the Quad Comm last September 13, 2024 where she is being investigated on her participation on the war on drugs.
In the previous Quad Comm hearing pointed to Col. Garma as one of the personalities who was influential in orchestrating the killing of three Chinese nationals at the Davao Penal and Prison Farm back in 2016.
Bureau of Corrections Superintendent Gerardo Padilla reportedly received a phone call from Garma through the phone of inmate Jimmy Fortaleza, informing the BuCor official of the operation to kill three Chinese druglords inside the prison. Garma and Fortaleza were classmates at the Philippine National Police Academy.
Both Fortaleza and Padilla confirmed receiving such call and in that same phone call, Garma allegedly informed Padilla not to interfere with the intended operations if he does not want his family to be harmed.
Garma was also a special and favored person in the eyes of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (FPRRD). She was police station commander from 2011 to 2016 in Davao City, when FPRRD was mayor. Garma was
also appointed as General Manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) when FPRRD was president.
She consistently denied any participation in the killing of the three Chinese drug lords, nor was she a favored by FPRRD. However, throughout the course of the hearing, there were several inconsistencies that were pointed out which tells us that Col. Garma was not exactly telling the truth.
Garma said that she applied for the position as general manager of PCSO. However, the general manager of the PCSO is a presidential appointee.
Garma also denied her participation in the war on drugs and the killing of the three Chinese nationals but in truth, the killings would not have happened without her phone call to Superintendent Padilla.
As a competent warden, Padilla would not have consented to the killing of the Chinese national, especially since his name will be implicated in the incident but out of fear, Padilla agreed to the killings all because of Garma’s intervention.
When the Quad Comm received no straight answers from Garma, she was cited in contempt. In a failed attempt to win the hearts of the public, she burst into tears and said that she had to be with her child who had an illness.
This brings to mind the fact that when people were being killed left and right, they were deprived of the due process of law and their right to life, even as several children were left without parents, or parents to feel the love of their children, all because they were collateral damage during the war on drugs.
Does Garma deserve sympathy? You be the judge.
