THE live-in partner of Eddie Basillotte accused Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Royina Garma of threatening to kill their family if they pushed through with the filing of cases against the policemen who allegedly beat him up.
Angela, who asked that her real name be withheld, said he told her about it when she brought him food at the detention cell of the CCPO last Saturday afternoon, April 27.
“Ang ako, nay giistorya ang akong bana sa ako. Nihatud ko gahapon og kaon, naa siya giistorya nako nga si Garma ni-psywar (psychological warfare) sa iya. Pamatyon kuno mi asta ang akong mga anak, asta mga ig-agaw sa akong bana. Pamatyon kuno ming tanan ug dili ipa-delete ang mga video ug padayon kuno namu ang kaso (He told me Garma tried to intimate him through psychological war, telling him that we would all be killed--our children, me, him and even his cousins--if we didn’t delete the video of the mauling incident and if we pushed through with the case),” she said.
But that won’t stop them, she said. They will fight and file charges against the police officers, she said.
Angela, 24, said they will cooperate with the Commission on Human Rights 7’s investigation if it conducts one.
Basillote, 28, was allegedly mauled by six police officers from the Talamban Police Station last April 18.
The incident was captured by a close-circuit television camera and the footage went viral.
Police Colonel Garma, for her part, denied threatening to kill Basillote or any members of his family.
She said her personnel are the ones who have received threats since the video went viral on social media.
She said the lives of eight police officers are in danger since their names were published on Facebook so they should be the ones having the incident recorded on the blotter.
Garma said she has no time for such allegations.
“Bahala sila kung anong sabihin nila (Let them say whatever they want). They’re just desperate. You know they are desperate. I don’t care... kung may mangyari sa kanila kasalanan ko pala (so if something happens to them it’s my fault). It’s up to them kung saan nila kinuha yung perception nila (where they get that perception)... I will not waste my time. Kung ite-threatened namin sasabin ko (If we were going to threaten them, I would say tell them)? It’s stupidity,” she said.
She also dismissed Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s post on social media, accusing one of the eight policemen from the Talamban Police Station of protecting a drug personality in Barangay Pulangbato.
According to her, some politicians in the area had admitted receiving P20 million from slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz in the last election.
“Yun dapat tinitingnan ng mga tao (People should look into that instead). They should stop throwing isyu sa amoa kay kung ako nagsalita, mas malala ang iysu naming ibalik ((allegations at us otherwise if I talk, a more serious issue will be thrown back at them),” Garma added.
Angela admitted that Basillote sold drugs before but he stopped when President Rodrigo Duterte came into power last 2016.
“My message to Garma is she shouldn’t treat us like that just because we’re poor. We have nothing to fight the police with. I hope they won’t kill us. She should look at the video closely so she’ll know the right thing to do. I just hope they won’t touch our family,” she pleaded in Cebuano.
Asked if Mayor Osmeña has offered them any assistance, Angela said no.
“No one is helping us. That is why I am asking the media and everybody else to help us,” she told reporters in Cebuano inside the house in Ponce 2, Barangay Carreta where the mauling took place.
Maria, the 17-year-old mother of the infant whose head was allegedly hit by the butt of the high-powered firearm of one of the police officers, also demanded justice for what happened.
“I was told to move back, then I saw the butt of the armalite and it hit my baby’s head,” she told reporters in Cebuano.
Maria, real name withheld because she is a minor, is five months pregnant.
“I just want justice for the men who were beaten up even though they were only playing pinball here,” she said, referring to Basillote and the two other men captured on the video.
Meanwhile, Superbalita Cebu asked Osmeña when he would release the P100,000 reward he promised to the informants who identified the policemen involved in the mauling incident.
“No comment,” he said. (WITH AYB, PAC OF SUPERBALITA CEBU / PJB)