Garma to file cyber libel case against Basillote’s common law wife 

Cebu City, Philippines—Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director, Police Colonel Royina Garma, said she will push through with filing a case of cyber libel against the common law wife of Eddie Basillote.

Garma announced this in a press conference on Monday, April 29, 2019 at the CCPO conference room. 

Read more: CCPO to probe Talamban cops for ‘police brutality’ caught on video

“Now, siguraduhun niyang maprove niya ang allegation sa amin, because I will be filing a case against her,” Garma said. 

(She should make sure she can prove her allegations against us, because I will be filling a case against her.)

Basillote’s common law wife on Sunday, April 28, accused Garma of allegedly threatening to kill her family. 

Read more: CHR-7: CCTV footage of police mauling suspect shows abuse of human rights

She said her husband told her when she visited him at the CCPO detention facility that the CCPO chief threatened to kill Basillote’s family if the CCTV footage showing armed men–reportedly police officers from the Talamban Police Station– mauling a group of individuals that included Basillote in Barangay Carreta, isn’t taken down. She also said that her husband told her that Garma asked the drug suspect not to pursue the filing of a case against the police. 

Garma earlier said she was mulling the filing of a cyber libel case against Basillote because of the interview done over social media. 

Read more: Alleged threat from CCPO chief claimed; Garma to suspect’s ‘wife’: Prove it

Garma said that she is still going over the case in order to find any other violations that might constitute the filing of other charges. 

“I’m thinking of [filing a case of] cyber libel. But other offenses under the revised penal code, pinagaralan ko kase gusto ko airtight,” Garma said.

(I’m thinking of cyber libel. But I’m thinking of other offenses under the revised penal code because I want an airtight case.) /bmjo