A Mandaluyong court has issued arrest warrants against former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina Garma and four others in connection with the 2020 killing of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga.
In a warrant dated September 13, the Regional Trial Court Branch 279 ordered the arrest of Garma, former National Police Commission commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, and police officials Jeremy Causapin, Santie Mendoza, and Nelson Mariano. They are facing charges of murder and frustrated murder.
Barayuga was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding gunman while inside his car in Mandaluyong on July 30, 2020. His driver survived the ambush. According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), of the three officers implicated, one has been dismissed, another placed under the Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit, while the third has resigned.
PNP public information office chief Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuano said the police are coordinating with the Bureau of Immigration to verify if some of the suspects may have already left the country.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla clarified that Garma’s pending testimony before the International Criminal Court (ICC) against former president Rodrigo Duterte will not be affected by the local arrest warrant. “If she’s abroad now, then she wouldn’t be returning. She’ll go straight to The Hague,” Remulla said.
Garma, a retired police colonel, earlier traveled to Malaysia to meet ICC representatives in preparation for her testimony on Duterte’s drug war. Remulla noted that arrangements were made for her to meet abroad due to threats to her safety in the Philippines. He also confirmed that negotiations involving Garma, former senator Antonio Trillanes, and the ICC had been ongoing while she was in the United States, with the Department of Justice being kept informed.
Garma previously exposed a reward system tied to Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, a disclosure that became part of the ICC’s probe into alleged crimes against humanity.
