RETIRED Police Col. Royina Garma, who is reportedly close to former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, was allegedly receiving P1 million weekly payola when she was chief of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Davao City.
Former Cebu City congressman and mayor Tommy Osmeña made this allegation Thursday during the sixth hearing of the House of Representatives Quad Committee looking into extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration, the drug trade and illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).
“I was made aware that in then previous hearing that Col. Garma said that our differences was personal. I just want you to know Mr. Chairman that I did not know her,” Osmeña told the joint panel.
Osmeña said he opposed Garma’s transfer to Cebu after receiving information that she is collecting P1 million a week as chief of the CIDG in Davao City.
“It (report) says that when Garma was head of CIDG she was collecting P1 million a week. I cannot accept this for Cebu City. And her bagman was a certain SPO4 Art,” Osmeña said.
“Now it appears that SPO4 Art is not only a lover. She brought this policeman with her when she was appointed to PCSO,” he added.
Then President Rodrigo Duterte named Garma as Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager a few days after she availed herself of early retirement from the PNP.
Osmeña said he was told by someone that Duterte is against him because of a woman and not because of politics. He said that the same person told him that Garma will be appointed to the PCSO.
“I am very happy that this committee is giving us the opportunity to air these things which you could further investigate,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña told the committee that he is happy to give information when the panel discuss the extrajudicial killings during the previous administration.
He said Garma was so influential that she had him suspended for one year by the Office of the Ombudsman after defending three vendors who were being harassed by policemen.
“Fortunately the Ombudsman reversed its decision. The decision came out today. I am no longer suspended, I’m not even a mayor any more,” Osmeña said.
Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, a Quad Comm co-chairman, said that the policeman Osmeña was referring to must be the same SPO4 Arthur Narsolis linked by two witnesses to the extrajudicial killing of three Chinese drug lords inside the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in August 2016.
Garma is under detention in the House of Representatives after the Quad Comm cited her in contempt last week for lying.
Osmeña, whom the joint panel invited to shed light on an illegal POGO the authorities raided in Lapu-Lapu City last month, told Quad Comm that he knows more about extrajudicial killings than POGOs.
“I can tell you that there were innocent policemen and civilians killed. I will tell you more in your next hearing,” he said.
He said there was only one POGO case he knew about.
He recalled that in May 2018, a CIDG team raided an establishment at the Megaworld property on Mactan Island.
After one week, the team leader was relieved, he said.
Fernandez said the same fate befell police officers involved in the close of a POGO hub in Bamban, Tarlac.
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