Masterminds of the drug war killings

I had a front row seat watching police officers confess to their participation in the killings of a retired police general and three detained drug personalities, all in the name of the drug war during the Duterte administration. I saw guilt, fear, lack of remorse, and scowl expressed in the varied faces of those who confessed, were pointed to as masterminds, or were identified as having provided the means for the killings.

I witnessed all these when I attended two sessions of the House of Representatives’ quad committee which has been holding hearings on the drug war. I was invited as resource person in my capacity as chair of the Center for International Law which represents the families of drug war victims.

During the Sept. 12, 2024 hearing, the former police head of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Gerardo Padilla, told lawmakers that he was ordered by then police colonels Royina Garma and Edilberto Leonardo not to interfere and just cooperate in the planned operation to kill three Chinese inmates convicted of drug offenses. In August 2016, the three Chinese were killed under very bloody circumstances by two fellow convicts inside the Davao prison premises. Padilla next confirmed that then President Rodrigo Duterte called to congratulate him for a “job well done.” Padilla corroborated the previous testimonies of the two convicts who killed the three Chinese inmates, and who testified that they heard Duterte congratulate Padilla over the phone.

During the second hearing that I attended on Sept. 20, 2024, another police officer, Police Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza, came forward to implicate both Garma and Leonardo in the 2020 killing of retired police general Wesley Barayuga. At that time, Garma was already appointed to the juicy position of general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). On the other hand, Barayuga was the PCSO board of directors corporate secretary who was getting in the way of various irregularities that Garma wanted implemented. According to Mendoza, it was Garma who ordered Leonardo to implement the killing. Leonardo falsely framed Barayuga as a high-value target in the drug war, and he ordered Mendoza to hire an assassin. Garma assigned a vehicle for Barayuga’s use, with the intention of making it easier for the assassin to follow the target and execute the killing. Barayuga was described as a simple man who brought home-cooked baon for lunch and who took public transportation in going to and from his office. The quad committee played the video which showed the cold-blooded assassination of Barayuga while his assigned car was stuck in traffic.

The testimonies of Padilla and the two convicts provide damning evidence that there was really orchestration in implementing the extrajudicial killing of illegal drug personalities during the Duterte presidency. The liquidation of the three Chinese prove that there was a policy to use killing as an instrument of eradicating the illegal drugs menace. The policy has become traceable all the way up to Duterte, thanks to the testimonies of Padilla and the two convicts. There’s no doubt that these killings are useful evidence in the ongoing International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation because they identify not only those who pulled the trigger, but more importantly, those who ordered the triggers to be pulled.

Unfortunately, the killing of Barayuga is outside the jurisdiction of the ICC. Unlike the 2016 killing of the three Chinese which happened within the 2011 to 2019 period when the ICC has jurisdiction over the Philippines, the assassination of Barayuga happened in 2020. However, while Barayuga’s murder is a crime outside ICC jurisdiction, it remains to be seen if the evidence surrounding his killing can be used to prove the existence of a policy of killing during the entire period of the drug war. Nevertheless, the Barayuga murder can still be prosecuted in our local courts as a crime against humanity under Republic Act No. 9851, and as murder under our criminal code.

Through multiple fronts, the role of Duterte as the ultimate mastermind in the drug war killings is getting established. Aside from his phone call, Duterte’s key role is unraveling because of his alleged intimate association with Garma and close links to Leonardo. There’s repeated insinuation that Garma was the most powerful police officer during the Duterte years because she was allegedly the then president’s mistress. There’s also mention that Leonardo belonged to the “King’s men” which apparently referred to the Duterte inner circle. As Mendoza stated, the words of Leonardo were accepted by police officers as coming from Duterte himself.

One gets the sense that there will be more explosive testimonies that will come out in the subsequent hearings. As revealed by one quad committee chair, “Ang ebidensiya lumalapit sa amin.” It will likely emerge in the weeks ahead that our lawmakers have the goods on Duterte.

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