A Philippines former police colonel has testified that Rodrigo Duterte’s office offered police up to $17,000 to kill suspects as part of his “war on drugs”, sparking calls for the evidence to be referred to the international criminal court.
Royina Garma, a former police colonel who had close ties to Duterte, gave the most damning evidence yet against the former president, when she told a parliamentary committee last week he had called her in May 2016, asking her to find a police officer capable of implementing a nationwide “war on drugs”.
The national crackdown was to be based on the model implemented in Davao, where Duterte was previously mayor, she said: “This Davao Model referred to the system involving payment and rewards.”
Garma told the hearing that under this “model”, police could earn between P20,000 ($346) and P1m ($17,340) per killing, depending upon the target. Rewards were given only for killings, not arrests, she said.
Duterte has previously denied authorising extrajudicial killings. However, he repeatedly and openly threatened drug dealers with death prior to and during his presidency and urged people to kill drug addicts and dealers. In 2016, he claimed he personally killed suspects while mayor.
Duterte’s anti drugs crackdowns, in which rights groups estimate as many as 30,000 people, mostly young men, were killed, is being investigated by the international criminal court, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr - who ran a joint election campaign with Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte in 2022 – has previously said he will not comply with the ICC.
Marcos Jr has said that cases must be handled by the Philippine’s courts, and has described the ICC as a threat to the country’s sovereignty.
Kristina Conti from the National Union of People’s Lawyers, who represents some of the families of victims of the drug war, said the government should submit the evidence to the ICC, and allow its investigators access to Garma, who is now in detention.
Doing so could expedite investigations, she said. “There’s a layer of judicial processes that you could skip if it was formally referred by the government. The authentication and then perhaps future referral to interviews, to access to the witness, could be brokered through the government,” she added.
Relations between the dynastic Marcos and Duterte families have soured in recent times, and analysts say it is possible Marcos could expose Duterte to prosecution if he believes this would be politically advantageous.
Speaking at a House of Representative’s committee on Friday, Garma said she had received a call from Duterte in May 2016, at about 5am, instructing her to meet him at his residence in Dona Luisa, Davao.
“I was already acquainted with then-mayor Duterte, having served as a station commander in one of the police stations in Davao during his tenure,” she said in her affidavit.
“During our meeting, he requested that I locate a Philippine national police (PNP) officer or operative who is a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, indicating that he needed someone capable of implementing the war on drugs on a national scale, replicating the Davao model.”
Iglesia Ni Cristo is an influential Christian group that had endorsed Duterte during his presidential campaign.
“The Davao Model involves three levels of payments or rewards. First is the reward if the suspect is killed. Second is the funding of planned operations. Third is the refund of operational expenses,” Garma alleged.
Her comments add to previous testimony given to the committee by police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, known as the drug war’s former poster boy, who also alleged that rewards were given for killings.
Garma, who was also former general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, named several individuals in her affidavit, including Duterte’s key aide, Bong Go, who is now a senator. All killings and requests for refunds for operational expenses were reported to Go, she alleged.
Go has denied that money was offered in exchange for killings, or that he had a role in handling funds. Go has said he would support an investigation into the drugs war by the senate, of which he is a member.
Human rights groups and lawyers acting for the families of victims say domestic agencies cannot be trusted to provide real justice. Victims lawyer Conti said: “We are wary of any domestic investigation, judicial investigation, [or] rather prosecutorial investigation, because the persons investigating or prosecuting could be the same ones involved in it as well.”
Carlos Conde, senior researcher at the Asia division of Human Rights Watch covering the Philippines, said: “There’s no way we can expect [law enforcement agencies] to do an honest to goodness, impartial, thorough investigation of the killings.”
