THIS week, news reports indicated that former police colonel Royina Garma, who testified before Congress last year about former President Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged reward system for extrajudicial killings during his war on drugs, had been meeting with International Criminal Court (ICC) officials in Malaysia to potentially become a witness in the case against Duterte.
Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla has confirmed that Garma agreed to testify before the ICC after being deported from the United States following a denied asylum application.
With Garma’s status as a former police officer, she could give firsthand insights into alleged extrajudicial operations by police operatives in the bloody war on drugs by the Duterte regime.
Garma’s potential testimony could be a defining moment in the case against Duterte as she isn’t just any witness.
Remulla described her as the “highest-ranking police officer” willing to testify about the drug war. That gives her testimony unique weight and credibility, especially in a case centered on alleged crimes committed by law enforcement under Duterte’s command.
Garma testified last year before the House Quad Committee that Duterte instructed her to replicate the “Davao model” nationwide – a system she claimed involved payments and rewards for killing drug suspects.
If she repeats this under oath at the ICC, it could directly implicate Duterte in orchestrating extrajudicial killings, not just tolerating them.
Her testimony could bridge the gap between policy and execution.
She named officials involved in implementing the reward system and described how operational funding and bounties were distributed.
This kind of insider detail is exactly what prosecutors need to prove command responsibility and systematic abuse.
Garma’s safety and credibility are at stake. Her meeting in Malaysia was arranged partly for her protection. Her life could be in danger in the Philippines due to the nature of her revelations.
Her willingness to testify abroad adds to her credibility: it suggests she’s serious, not just making noise.
Garma is a controversial figure herself, as she faces murder and frustrated murder charges in the Philippines related to the 2020 killing of a top official of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office that she once headed.
While this complicates her image, it could also make her testimony more dramatic.
If she’s turning against the administration she once served, it could be seen as a convenient move to protect herself, but also a belated recognition that given the extent of the extra-judicial killings, it’s her moral obligation to let justice take its course.
In short, Garma’s testimony could be the defining moment in Duterte’s trial before the ICC as she could confirm not just mere allegations but a compelling narrative from inside the murderous machinery of the then-president’s war on drugs from 2016 to 2022.
