Police Colonel Royina Garma, Cebu City Police Office chief | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police Colonel Royina Garma is offering P200,000 to anyone who can testify as a credible witness and provide evidence of the alleged “police brutality” in the Barangay Carreta operation on April 18.
Garma, Cebu City Police Office chief, made this offer on Friday, April 26, after Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña announced in his Facebook page that he would give P100,000 to every person, who could pinpoint the six men, involved in the alleged beat up of drug suspect Eddie Basillote and two others as shown in a CCTV (close circuit television) footage which went viral online.
She said she was doing this to avoid letting the police again be the subject of criticism.
“Ah bigay rin ako P200,000, kung sino yung pumunta dito at mag testify, maging witness, secure affidavit,” said Garma.
(I will also give P200,000 to who can come to me to testify to be a witness secure affidavit.)
Garma said that the funds would be sourced from pooled sources, adding that many would want to help the police.
Read more: CCPO to probe Talamban cops for ‘police brutality’ caught on video
“Rather than the police be again subject to criticism without proper investigation, and people will make speculations and conclusions out of a seven-minute video,” said Garma.
The feisty policewoman further clarified that the reward would only be given to one witness, who could present a concrete evidence, especially the source of the CCTV footage.
Read more: CHR-7: CCTV footage of police mauling suspect shows abuse of human rights
“Alam n’yo, kahit 100 pa ang witness n’yo, kung walang evidentiary value yan, negative pa rin. I need one, with value ang evidence, that’s it,” said Garma.
(Even if you have 100 witnesses, if they do not have evidentiary value, it is still useless. I need one, with value and evidence. That’s it.)
She said that if proven that they did beat up the suspect, then the police officers might be suspended or dismissed from the service.
Garma assured fairness in the conduct of the investigation, as this is a part of their “internal cleansing.”
“We are actually cleaning our ranks, and we do not tolerate all these kinds of abuses,” said Garma./dbs