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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider SOJ Remulla: Royina Garma agrees to testify before ICC vs ex-Pres Duterte

SOJ Remulla: Royina Garma agrees to testify before ICC vs ex-Pres Duterte

Published Sep 8, 2025 03:26 pm
Retired police colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina M. Garma has agreed to testify before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the extrajudicial killings during the administration of former president Rodrigo R. Duterte who was also former Davao City mayor.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla said the ICC testimony was the reason why Garma left the Philippines for Malaysia last Sunday or just a day after she arrived last Saturday from the United States.
“I think she agreed to be a witness according to Sen. Sonny Trillanes (former senator Antonio Trillanes IV),” Remulla told reporters during a press briefing.
“So, as we speak, she’s with them right now, with the ICC people in Malaysia,” Remulla said.
According to Remulla “the best way to protect Garma is for the ICC to meet her abroad because her life could be in danger in our country.”
He pointed out: “Let’s face it. Uniformed personnel ang kalaban n’ya (Her opponents are uniformed personnel).”
Remulla disclosed that before Garma left the Philippines she met with National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Jaime “Jimmy” B. Santiago.
“I just asked outgoing Director Jimmy Santiago to make sure that she was doing the right thing, she will be doing what she said will be doing which is to testify and to meet with the ICC first,” he said.
He stressed the importance of Garma’s testimony against Duterte who is currently detained in The Hague in the Netherlands and faces crimes against humanity before the ICC for the extrajudicial killings during his drug war.
“I think Garma is the highest-ranking police officer that can be asked to give a narrative about the drug war, the reward system, and the other parts of her testimony which she has already given,” he said.
He admitted that the negotiations to have Garma turn as prosecution witness before the ICC was done through Trillanes.
“Mr. Trillanes kasi is a go between the DOJ and the ICC because we have not yet defined our intention to rejoin the ICC and we just have a working relationship that is not even just at arms-length but a cautious working relationship,” he explained.
He also said that Garma was forced to return to the Philippines last Saturday, Sept. 6, after her application for asylum in the United States was denied.
Garma fled in November last year to the US after appearing before the legislative hearings on the drug war where she admitted the existence of a reward system to policemen who killed drug suspects.
She is facing a complaint before the DOJ for murder and frustrated murder in connection with the 2020 killing of PCSO board secretary and retired police general Wesley Barayuga and for the injuries sustained by the victim's driver Jun Gunao.
“We will still run after it and we will see how this will play out because the testimony in the ICC is very important, I think. Not only that, the Wesley Barayuga case is equally important. It cannot go unserved,” assured Remulla.
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