An arrest warrant has been issued against former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina Garma and four other individuals in connection with the killing of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga in 2020.
Garma, former National Police Commission commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, and police officers Jeremy Causapin, Santie Mendoza, and Nelson Mariano were charged with murder and frustrated murder before the Regional Trial Court in Mandaluyong City.
On July 30, 2020, Barayuga was gunned down by a motorcycle-riding assailant while aboard his vehicle in Mandaluyong City. His driver survived the attack.
The Philippine National Police saidthat it will serve the warrant regardless of the status or former positions of those involved.
Earlier this month, the Bureau of Immigration confirmed that Garma traveled to Malaysia, just a day after her return from the United States.
She remains the subject of an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO) issued in November 2024 for being a person of interest in cases from 2020 and 2016.
The BI said there was no hold departure order or active warrant against her at the time.
Garma had returned to the Philippines earlier this month after being arrested and detained in San Francisco, California, on November 7, 2024, due to her canceled US visa.
The retired police colonel left the country late last year after testifying in House Quad Committee hearings on the previous administration’s drug war, where she confirmed the use of the “Davao Model.”
In her affidavit, Garma implicated former President Rodrigo Duterte and then-special assistant, now Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, in orchestrating a nationwide campaign that led to extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.
