In July 2020, Atty. Wesley Barayuga, a retired general and board secretary of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), was shot by an unknown assailant on a motorcycle in Mandaluyong City. As of yesterday, the suspect remains at large, and no one has been linked to the killing.

Until today, 27 September 2024, during the latest Quad Committee Hearing where Police Lieutenant Colonel Santie Fuentes Mendoza revealed that the order to kill Barayuga came from Police Colonel Edilberto Leonardo and retired Police Colonel and former PCSO General Manager Royina Garma. Mendoza narrated that in 2019, Leonardo approached him about a project involving a high-ranking government official allegedly linked to illegal drug activities. When Mendoza wanted to conduct his independent investigation, Leonardo informed him that it was unnecessary, as the order came directly from Garma, who had personal knowledge of Barayuga’s involvement in these activities.

Forced to follow orders from these high-ranking officials and fear of career repercussions due to their close ties with the Duterte administration, Mendoza felt he had no choice but to carry out the kill orders. He then turned to Nelson Mariano, who had a network of individuals capable of carrying out such tasks. Mariano confirmed that Mendoza approached him to find a hitman for the project that had a budget of PhP300,000. Mariano subsequently found a hitman known as “Loloy” to carry out the job.

So, what was the motive behind the killing? It was revealed during the hearing that at the time Barayuga was ordered to be killed, there was an ongoing investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) into the operations of the small-town lottery (STL) conducted by the PCSO. Before his death, Barayuga was preparing documents and ready to testify against Garma and the ongoing corruption and illegal practices within the PCSO. In fact, during previous hearings, Chairman Dan Fernandez presented evidence indicating that the Philippine government lost PHP 90 billion during Garma’s tenure at the PCSO from 2019 to 2022.

It was also revealed that the car Barayuga was riding when he was killed was issued to him by Garma. This made it easier for the kill order to be carried out, as it established a pattern. Before this, Barayuga had been using public transportation, making it difficult for “Loloy” to carry out the order. A man known as “Toks,” a henchman of Garma, provided the car details to identify Barayuga and notified them that he was leaving the office on the day he was killed.

After the killing was carried out, Toks handed over the PhP300,000. The amount was divided among those involved: Mendoza received PhP40,000, Mariano got PhP60,000, and “Loloy” was paid PhP200,000.

However, at the time of his death in 2020, it was made to appear that his killing was due to his involvement with illegal drugs. His name was included in the drug list in August 2020, a month after his death. Before this, he had never been included in any drug list, as confirmed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

All of this planning and cover-up clearly shows that Garma is a ruthless woman unafraid to eliminate anyone who stands in her way. She ordered the hit on Barayuga, and to cover it up, she made it look drug-related—a favorite tactic of the Duterte administration given their notorious drug war. She can be this fearless because she knows she has the backing of former President Rodrigo Duterte. As one lawmaker pointed out, Garma presents herself as a meek lamb, but in reality, she is a ruthless killer.

This is not the first death linked to Garma. Various testimonies from previous hearings have already linked Garma to the deaths of three Chinese drug lords — Cho-kin Tong, Jackson Lee, and Peter Wang — inside a prison cell at Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) in July 2016.

Garma is one of the key players during the Duterte administration. She was given a juicy government position that made it easy to steal the Filipino people’s money. Her background as a police officer also made it easy to kill anyone who stood in her way while remaining unaccountable. The failed war on drugs was a convenient excuse not only to eliminate Duterte’s rival drug lords and monopolize the drug trade but also a convenient excuse for Duterte’s allies to pursue a personal vendetta.

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