📷: Former PCSO General Manager Royina Garma | Bureau of Immigration
Former police official and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) manager Royina Garma, who previously sought asylum in the United States after exposing alleged abuses in the government’s drug war, has returned to the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration confirmed Saturday.
Garma arrived at NAIA Terminal 1 at 6:50 PM aboard PR 113 from Los Angeles, California, according to immigration records.
The Department of Justice earlier disclosed that Garma left the country with her daughter on November 7, 2024 but was “intercepted and taken into custody by the US immigration in San Francisco due to her canceled visa.”
Garma faces murder and frustrated murder complaints filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in connection with the death of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga.
Named as co-respondents in the case are former National Police Commission commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, and police officials Jeremy Causapin, Santie Mendoza, and Nelson Mariano.
The case was reopened after Mendoza testified before the Quadcom, identifying Garma and Leonardo as the alleged masterminds behind the July 30, 2020 ambush that killed Barayuga near the PCSO office in Mandaluyong City.
Garma was previously released from detention by a House mega panel investigating Duterte’s anti-narcotics crackdown, after she “committed to attend its next hearings.”
In earlier testimonies, Garma claimed that former President Rodrigo Duterte had “sanctioned a cash reward system for the deaths of drug suspects.” She said a national task force patterned after the ‘Davao Model’ provided “financial rewards, plus funding for planned operations and reimbursement for operational expenses.”
Duterte has denied Garma’s allegations. (ZIA LUNA)
