Ex-Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Royina Garma came out with another bombshell allegation, this time, saying that a close aide of Senator Bong Go was in-charge of managing the financial aspect of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
During the House Quad Committee hearing on Friday, Garma identified Irmina Espino, alias Muking or Moking, as the person who managed the funds necessary to carry out the previous leadership’s covert operations against suspected drug personalities on a nationwide scale.
Espino was supposedly a staff member in Go’s office at the Davao City hall during Duterte’s tenure as mayor, and continued to work for him when he became special assistant to the President at Malacañang, serving as assistant secretary at his office.
Garma, a retired police colonel with close ties to Duterte, left lawmakers stunned with her disclosure of details about the alleged reward system for extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the previous administration’s war on drugs, the statement read.
In her affidavit submitted to the Quad Comm, Garma implicated Duterte and Go in orchestrating a nationwide campaign that led to deaths of thousands of supposed drug personalities.
The affidavit provided new insights into the internal workings of Duterte’s controversial war on drugs, including a supposed reward system for the killings.
Garma directly implicated Espino in sensitive communications and financial dealings related to the drug war, saying in 2016, Espino contacted her to obtain the contact information of then-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 11 chief Col. Edilberto Leonardo upon Duterte’s request.
“On the same day, a certain individual named Muking contacted me by phone to request Leonardo’s contact details, which I promptly provided,” Garma’s affidavit stated.
The Davao model operation had three levels of payments or rewards — a reward for killing suspects, funding for planned operations, and reimbursement of operational expenses, she revealed in detail.
Congress is expected to summon Espino to the next Quad Comm hearing.
For his part, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, together with committee overall chairperson, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, emphasized the urgency of uncovering Espino’s role in the financial transactions behind the war on drugs.
Garma detailed Espino’s involvement through her connection to a certain Peter Parungo, an individual not connected to the Philippine National Police but who managed large sums of money funneled through various bank accounts to fund anti-drug operations.
According to Garma, Parungo handled transactions involving significant amounts of cash, apparently raising red flags with banks.
The former PCSO head further revealed that that Parungo maintained accounts at Metrobank, BDO and PS Bank for the purpose of funding the “drug war.”
The Quad Comm, already investigating the intersection of illegal Philippine offshore and gaming operators (POGO), drug syndicates, and drug-related EJKs, is now focused on tracing the flow of money that made Duterte’s drug war possible.
The next hearing is expected to delve deeper into the financial underpinnings of the anti-drug campaign, with Espino’s testimony anticipated to provide critical insights.
Barbers stressed the importance of following the money trail, directing the committee to work with the Anti-Money Laundering Council to trace the flow of funds.
Meanwhile, two of the Lower Chamber’s so-called “Young Guns” hinted that Garma’s exposé on rewards paid to police officers for killing drug suspects “is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Zambales Rep. Jefferson Khonghun and La Union Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega V said the revelations of the ex-PCSO general manager gave the Filipino people a peek into the inner workings of the Duterte administration.
“So this is not something that cannot be easily ignored. This testimony definitely carries with it much credibility, most especially if other witnesses, including documentary evidence, will corroborate whatever Garma may have to say as a matter of public record,” Khonghun said.
“Please take note that Garma’s explosive testimony before us involves not just hundreds, but thousands of lives lost to drug operations where even innocent children and teenagers were killed – all in the guise of combatting the drug menace in the streets,” Ortega pointed out.
As this developed, law professor Tony La Viña said Garma’s cadid revelations may be her was of obtaining state witness status, and evade prosecution for her role in Duterte’s alleged drug war.
“I don’t exactly believe what Garma said (in her testimony); she appeared to be the least guilty since she might probably want to become state witness for the ICC or Philippine courts,” he said on radio dzRH.
However, he said that Garma’s testimony may be the lucky break investigators need to blow the case wide open.
“You only need someone to spill – a whistleblower. Other people could come out as whistleblowers afterwards,” he explained.
