QUEZON CITY, Philippines – Former Police Colonel Royina Garma attended the fifth hearing of the Quad
Comm last 13 September 2024 where she is being investigated on her participation in the war on drugs.
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 received a phone call from Garma through the
phone of inmate Jimmy Fortaleza, informing the BuCor official of the operation to kill three Chinese drug
lords inside the prison. Garma and Fortaleza were classmates at the Philippine National Police Academy.
Both Fortaleza and Padilla confirmed receiving such a call. In that same phone call, Garma informed Padilla
not to interfere with the intended operations if he did 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
favored by FPRRD. However, throughout the hearing, several inconsistencies were pointed out which tells us that Col. Garma was lying through her teeth.
Garma said that she applied for the position of general manager of PCSO. However, the general manager
of the PCSO is a presidential appointee. It was the president’s choice to appoint Garma as PCSO general
manager, and that her application did not weight the decision of FPRRD.
Garma also denied her participation in the war on drugs and the killing of the three Chinese nationals. 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 would be implicated in the incident. 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.
Col. Garma deserves no sympathy. As a true killer, she took no remorse when people were being killed left
and right, depriving them of the due process of law and their right to life. She cried because she wanted
to be with her child, but took no pain when she left several children without parents, or parents to feel
the love of their children, all because they were collateral damage during the war on drugs. Now that she
is in the spotlight on her role in implementing FPRRD’s extrajudicial killings, she puts on a spectacle to win
the hearts of the people. But the public knows better, and Garma is not worthy of any form of
compassion.
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