Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña attends the joint committee meeting at the House of Representatives on Thursday, September 19. | Screengrab from House quad committee hearing on Pogos, EJKs.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Former Cebu City mayor Tomas “Tommy” Osmeña is willing to cooperate with the House of Representatives’ next quad-committee hearing to shed light on the extrajudicial killings (EJK) in Cebu City during his time.
On Thursday, Sept. 19, Osmeña showed up in the hearing where he was earlier invited to provide insights into a recent raid on illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) site and the ongoing investigations into EJKs in Cebu.
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His invitation in the hearing was part of a broader investigation that recently involved Police Colonel Royina Garma, former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager and former Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director.
Osmeña clarified on Sept. 19, that he did not know Garma from the beginning.
Garma was assigned to Cebu City to head the CCPO from being a head of a police station in Davao after former President Rodrigo Duterte took office as president.
During the hearing on Thursday, Osmeña brought with him some documents that would help in the probe.
Based on the document he read, when Garma was the head of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), she was collecting P1 million per week as “payola” for illegal gambling activities with Garma’s former alleged lover, a certain “SPO4 Art” who served as her “bagman.”
Osmeña revealed in his 2019 Facebook post that the certain SPO4 Art was named Arthur Narsolis.
“I cannot accept this for Cebu City,” Osmeña said.
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Rep. Dan Fernandez, the joint committee’s co-chairperson, said Narsolis has been under the House’s order of contempt and they are also looking after him.
“Furthermore, I also like to expose to you, because somebody told me, why is the President Duterte [is] against me? And they said it’s because of a woman,” Osmeña said.
The former Cebu City mayor added that he was also able to predict Garma’s appointment as the PSCO chief, after hearing from a source that Garma would be appointed in the PCSO after serving as the CCPO chief.
“That shows the reliability of my information. So, it’s not because of politics. It’s because of a woman,” Osmeña said.
Some people were killed
Osmeña recalled that in the past, “so many people have been hurt” and “some people have been killed.”
With this, Osmeña thanked the House for inviting him in the hearing to further investigate in the matter as he would also be willing to attend in the next one should the House invite him again.
“In the next session, when you want to talk about extrajudicial killings, I’d be happy to give you a lot of information. But just to give you a teaser, it’s not only drug suspects who were killed. There were policemen who were killed and there were other innocent people who were killed,” Osmeña said.
There were also students and SK officials who were prevented from voting, Osmeña said, according to the information that he had.
“The vindictiveness is so strong and the influence of Col. Garma is so strong, she was able to convince the Ombudsman to suspend me for one year because I came to the rescue of three poor vendors who were being harassed by the police, and I put them under my custody. Why should they be killed for minor violation?,” Osmeña said.
The said order of suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman was also dismissed based on the resolution released on Thursday, Sept. 19, dismissing the criminal and administrative cases against former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña filed by Garma.
Osmeña vs. Garma
Complaints of the obstruction of justice, abuse of authority, and conduct unbecoming of a public official were reportedly filed against him by Garma for taking custody of persons arrested by police for selling LPG-filled butane canisters at T. Padilla Public Market in August 2018.
Years ago, Osmeña already denied all the allegations hurled against him by the police and claimed that taking custody of the three suspects would not constitute an obstruction of justice.
He also requested the Office of the Ombudsman to dismiss the complaint for ‘lack of probable cause.”
And on Sept. 19, 2024, the Ombudsman resolved the case stating, “For the same reasons, it is clear that the elements of corruption, clear intent to violate the law or flagrant disregard of an established rule are not present in the instant cases. Thus, there is also no substantial evidence to hold Osmeña liable for Grave Misconduct.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with reporters in Manila on Thursday, Osmeña warned the investigating body not get fooled with Garma’s tears. He was referring to last week’s quad-committee hearing, where she was ordered detained at the lower house for being evasive in answering questions about her relationship with Duterte.
Osmeña also told reporters at the House that he brought up the matter to Duterte in the past “personally” but the latter “didn’t do anything.” | with reports from Pia Piquero of CDN Digital and Luisa Cabato of Inquirer.net