ROYINA Garma is in the ropes, getting pummeled by congressmen as her storied past surfaces before the House Quad Comm.
She was ordered detained in the premises of the House of Representatives for “repeatedly lying” to the members of the four committees.
What came out of the hearing last week confirms what has long been suspected: Garma’s remarkable rise in the police force hewed closely to the rising star of Rodrigo Duterte from Davao City to Malacañang.
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Garma is an alumna of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA Kapanalig Class of 1997).
Her class includes Col. Edilberto Leonardo, now a Commissioner of the National Police Commission.
Supt. Lito Patay is also a member of this class. His uncanny surname added notoriety to his stint as chief of the Batasan Police Station No. 6 in Quezon City. In July 2016 to June 2017, 108 drug-related deaths were recorded in his jurisdiction, earning it the monicker “the deadliest police station.”
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Leonardo admitted in Congress that Kapanalig met as a class in Davao in June 2016 shortly before Rodrigo Duterte assumed the Presidency.
The meeting took place in the DPWH building, Duterte’s old office. As we know, drug war killings started when Duterte greenlighted Oplan Double Barrel as one of his first official acts.
Supt. Marvin Marcos is also said to be present in that meeting. The current Soccsksargen CIDG chief had been charged with homicide for the prison killing of Albuera, Leyte’s Mayor Rolando Espinosa in November 2016.
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As fate would have it, another Kapanalig class member was rotting in jail while his classmates were poised to pole-vault their way to promotions, owing to their special closeness to the President.
Police Major Jimmy Fortaleza is a convicted prisoner serving sentence for serious illegal detention at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Panabo.
It was his membership in the class that placed Fortaleza in a unique position to link his warden Supt. Gerardo Padilla with his classmate Garma who wanted to implement a “project” in DPPF.
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Thus formed the purported conspiracy to eliminate three Chinese nationals also serving time in DPPF on drug related charges.
Garma admits she visited the Davao penal colony to see detainee Fortaleza in July 2016, but said it was a “random decision” because she happened to be in the area together with two other classmates.
Two members of Kapanalig class accompanied her in this visit: Hector Grijaldo, Jr. and Roland Vilela.
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Grijaldo would become Mandaluyong City chief of police in early 2020, with Garma already ensconced as general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The principal office of PCSO is located in Mandaluyong.
Is it a coincidence that PCSO corporate secretary Wesley Barayuga was killed by a motorcycle riding gunman in late July 2020 shortly after exiting his office in PCSO?
Hold on to your seats as the Quad Comm is pressing on to establish how Davao-style assassinations were magnified in the national arena when Duterte became President, seemingly aided by a select class of the PNPA./PN
