DOJ: Garma in Malaysia for talks with ICC
Retired Police Col. Royina Garma is in Malaysia to speak with representatives of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after agreeing to testify against former President Rodrigo Duterte, according to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
Meanwhile, the Pre-Trial Chamber 1 of the ICC indefinitely postponed the scheduled Sept. 23 confirmation of charges for the crime against humanity of murder against Duterte.
Garma was one of Duterte’s trusted aides who dropped the bombshell testimony on the cash reward system for every suspect killed in his drug war.
Remulla told reporters that Garma left for Malaysia on Sunday night, shortly after her deportation from the United States on Saturday, and was scheduled to meet with ICC representatives.
The justice chief also disclosed that Garma became a subject of his conversation with former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
Remulla said the ICC had been asking Trillanes to work on making Garma “available [as] a witness.”
“A few days ago we got word that she was on the way home and we waited for her arrival,” Remulla said, adding that Garma was applying for asylum in the United States but was denied.
Witness protection
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) confirmed on Sept. 6 that Garma arrived in Manila from Los Angeles that day.
The next day, however, the BI allowed her to leave for Kuala Lumpur, since there was no hold-departure order or arrest warrant against her, only an immigration lookout bulletin order (Ilbo).
“She’s just a subject of an Ilbo. Given that and the fact that she’s going to Malaysia to meet with the ICC, it gave us reason to say okay because if she’s going to be a witness to the ICC, we have said that our working relationship with the ICC involves witness protection,” Remulla explained.
He emphasized that the “best way” to protect Garma was for ICC representatives to meet her abroad “because her life can be in danger in our country.”
“Let’s face it, uniformed personnel are the enemies. So as we speak, she’s with… the ICC people in Malaysia,” Remulla added.
In a statement on Monday, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber 1 said it found a “limited postponement of the hearing on the confirmation of [Duterte’s] charges warranted to allow sufficient time to adjudicate the request and related matters.”
The former president has sought an indefinite suspension, saying he is not fit to stand trial.
‘Go-between’
Remulla said the Department of Justice (DOJ) is communicating only with Trillanes and not directly with the ICC “because we have not signified our intention to rejoin the ICC and we just have a working relationship—not even at arm’s length, but a cautious working relationship.”
In a message to the Inquirer, Trillanes—whom Remulla described as the “go-between” for the DOJ and the ICC —confirmed that Garma had already agreed to testify against Duterte at The Hague.
Two years before the Philippines’ exit from the ICC took effect, lawyer Jude Sabio filed a complaint in April 2017 against the alleged extrajudicial killings on Duterte’s watch as Davao City mayor.
Two months later, Trillanes and then Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano filed a “supplemental communication” before the ICC on Duterte’s drug war.
In her testimony during a House hearing on Oct. 11, 2024, Garma, who served as police station commander in Davao City when Duterte was mayor, revealed that he called her up sometime in 2016 after he was elected president.
He then instructed her to find a police officer who would lead his nationwide drug war similar to the “Davao model,” referring to the system “involving payments and rewards.”
After testifying in that inquiry, Garma fled to the United States with her daughter in November 2024 but was intercepted by US border-control authorities. —WITH REPORTS FROM TETCH TORRES-TUPAS AND GILLIAN VILLANUEVA
