Did former President Rodrigo Duterte order the hit on retired general Wesley Barayuga?
THIS is one of the questions the House of Representatives four-committee panel known as Quad Comm wants retired colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina Garma to answer, according to panel co-chair and House Committee on Human Rights Chair Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr., who on Monday urged Garma to “reveal all she knows about EJKs and identify those who ordered the killings, who carried out the orders, who are all those involved.”
“Retired Colonel Garma’s explosive testimony last Friday linking former President Duterte and his close aide Sen. Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go to extrajudicial killings during the previous administration could be just the tip of the iceberg. This is just the beginning of a deeper inquiry into a more alarming issue: the alleged participation of higher officials in EJKs. There is much more to uncover, and we are committed to getting to the bottom of these serious allegations,” said the lawmaker.
Abante vowed the Quad Comm “will not stop until all the facts are laid bare because this is about accountability, from the lowest office to the highest post.”
“As she has declared, the truth will set her free. We welcome such a declaration, and we hope she would begin to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She should not cover up the sins of her former superiors, the former president included,” added the representative from Manila.
For his part, Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the lead presiding officer of Quad Comm, said among the issues he personally is interested in knowing is if the supposed directive to assassinate retired police general and PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga in July 2020 came from Garma or from Duterte.
He said that as of now, the testimony from retired colonel and National Police Commission Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo points to Garma as the individual who ordered the “operation” on Barayuga and his inclusion in the Duterte administration’s drug list.
Former colonel and National Police Commission Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo and Garma are graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA).
A PNPA junior graduate, Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza, told the Quad Comm that Leonardo asked him to look for a hitman that would carry out the assassination of Barayuga.
Mendoza said he requested Nelson Mariano, a drug informant of his, to contact a hired killer. The latter reached out to a certain “Loloy” to kill Barayuga.
On the day of the assassination, Mariano said he and Loloy received real-time information on Barayuga’s movement, including a photograph of the late PCSO board secretary supposedly taken by Garma attending a PCSO board meeting, as well as the details of the vehicle the late PCSO board secretary would be using.
The information was sent by a certain “Toks,” supposedly a close aide of Garma. Mariano said it was Toks who also gave him P300,000 as payment for the task they carried out.
The retired general was killed not far from the PCSO office in Mandaluyong City.
“We want retired Col. Garma to comment on the detailed testimonies of Lt. Colonel Mendoza and Mr. Mariano, and of course on other EJK cases,” Barbers said.
Barbers added that since Garma has denied any hand in Barayuga’s murder, “she should reveal who ordered it.”
“She should also tell us what she knows about the murder of three Chinese drug lords inside the Davao prison in August 2016. She has been implicated by at least three witnesses,” pointed out Barbers.
He said the joint panel is also interested in what Garma knows about other EJK cases.
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