📷Former PCSO General Manager Royina Garma
Murder charges have been filed against Royina Garma, former PCSO General Manager, and Edilberto Leonardo, former NAPOLCOM Commissioner, along with five others in connection with the murder of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga.
The complaints were submitted to the Department of Justice on Monday by members of the PNP CIDG and the NBI OTCD after several months of collaborative investigation.
Included in the charges are Police Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza and police informant Nelson Mariano, who identified Garma and Leonardo as the masterminds behind Barayuga’s 2019 murder during a House Quad Committee hearing.
Both Garma and Leonardo have denied the accusations during the hearings.
Mendoza stated that he reached out to Mariano to connect with a hitman known as “Alyas Toks,” who carried out the assassination of Barayuga.
Alyas Toks has been identified in the complaint as Police Sr. Master Sergeant Jeremy Causapin, along with another individual referred to as “Alyas Loloy” and a John Doe.
Mendoza and Mariano have been recommended as state witnesses due to their cooperation in the investigation.
The National Prosecution Service will assess the complaint before scheduling a preliminary investigation hearing.
The inquiry into Barayuga’s murder was initially led by former Mandaluyong City Police Station chief Police Colonel Hector Grijaldo Jr., who was a classmate of Garma at the PNP Academy.
Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the lead chairperson of the House Quad Committee, stated that Grijaldo is responsible for covering up the true motives behind Barayuga’s murder in Mandaluyong in 2020.
Garma is currently detained in the United States for alleged money laundering and human rights violations related to the Magnitsky Act.
The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, enacted in 2016, imposes sanctions on those responsible for human rights abuses and corruption globally. (ZIA LUNA)
