PH still awaiting info on Garma’s status in US
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to receive any formal communication from the United States about the status of retired Police Col. Royina Garma who is detained there under the Magnitsky Act for her alleged involvement in money laundering and human rights violations.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told reporters on Tuesday that the DOJ had not sought Garma’s return to the Philippines, citing the absence of any official updates.
“Once we receive communication, then it starts the ball rolling,” Remulla said.
US border control authorities arrested the former police official and her daughter on Nov. 7 in San Francisco, California, after her visa was reportedly canceled over a “human rights issue.”
Before fleeing to the United States, Garma dropped a bombshell testimony in Congress that former President Rodrigo Duterte had offered cash rewards for every drug suspect killed in his war on drugs.
According to Remulla, Garma has not posted bail although she has hired lawyers in the United States.
Asked if she had applied for political asylum there, he said: “I think so. But I doubt [if] it [will be granted] because she was already on the hot list before.”
‘Ill-advised move’
“It’s really an ill-advised move on her part to go there because she was already [on] the money-laundering list of the United States, even before she arrived there. [But] she still went there,” Remulla added.
On Nov. 12 last year, Remulla told reporters that Garma might return to the Philippines “anytime within the next 10 days.”
But in an interview less than a week later, he said Garma was still being held in the United States for alleged money laundering and human rights violations in connection with the Magnitsky Act.
“They’re actually after her properties, which she stored there, her money laundering activities, and of course, the human rights violations that were part of the Magnitsky Act,” Remulla said, referring to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, passed in 2016, which imposes sanctions for human rights violations and corruption anywhere in the world.
No advisory yet
The Bureau of Immigration, for its part, said it was still awaiting an advisory from US authorities on Garma’s case.
Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Romualdez did not immediately respond to the Inquirer’s queries about Garma’s status, while US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said she had “no information on enforcement matters or anything related to the immigration status of particular individuals, which would fall under the Privacy Act.”
In her testimony during a House hearing on Oct. 11, Garma, one of Duterte’s trusted aides who served as police station commander in Davao City while he was mayor, revealed that he called her up after being elected president in 2016. He then instructed her to find a police officer who would lead his nationwide drug war similar to the “Davao model.”
Garma had said she eventually recommended Police Lt. Col. Edilberto Leonardo, an Iglesia ni Cristo member then assigned to the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
In the course of the House probe, Garma was also implicated in the July 2020 ambush-slay of then Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board secretary Wesley Barayuga. At the time, Garma was the PCSO general manager after her appointment to the agency by Duterte following her retirement from the PNP.
Based on the progress report of the House quad committee, lawmakers recommended filing charges against Garma for violating Section 6 of Republic Act No. 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity.
They also recommended the filing of a murder charge for her alleged involvement in the killing of three Chinese prisoners inside the Davao Prison and Penal Farm on Aug. 13, 2016, as well as “appropriate criminal cases and other cases” for the murder of Barayuga.
