Briones: Number game
I DON’T know about “10,” but Colonel Royina Garma’s performance as director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) deserves, at the very least, a “six.”
Why am I being so stingy, unlike Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Debold Sinas who was very generous with his praises for the soon-to-retire-from-the-force official who will soon head the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)?
Well, I am a cheapskate. Let’s just clear that up. But more importantly, Cebu City hasn’t been as peaceful as its citizens would have wanted since Garma took office on July 1, 2018.
It didn’t help that she and then mayor Tomas Osmeña were constantly at odds. He probably thought that being the chief executive, he would reign supreme over the CCPO, and Garma would just do whatever he wanted.
Her predecessors, who happened to be all men, by the way, had kowtowed to his every whim and caprice. But no, she had another agenda. And so, Osmeña could only huff and puff till his face turned blue, while Garma coldly dismissed his tantrums before an aghast public.
So it was no surprise then that there was hardly news of her accomplishments. People were more interested in Osmeña’s latest tirades against her, some of which were very serious.
He did accuse members of the CCPO of being behind the spate of killings that had plagued the city. And we’re not talking about your ordinary criminals dropping like flies. Oh no. More like the likes of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency assistant operations chief Baby “Earl” Rallos, who was gunned down on Villalon St., near a busy intersection and the Capitol building, by two unidentified men during rush hour. Or former Cebu City assistant prosecutor Mary Ann Castro, who was ambushed by a man on a motorcycle on Escario St. after a night out with friends.
And let’s not forget the five men whose bodies were found shot several times in the mountain barangay of Malubog. Or four-year-old Bladen Skyler Abatayo who was hit by a stray bullet during a drug bust conducted by operatives of the Carbon Police Station.
In Abatayo’s case, a National Bureau of Investigation 7 report stating that the bullet came from a cop led to the charging of three police officers. As for the other high-profile cases, police have yet to identify or arrest the killer or killers.
These don’t exactly reflect well on her record.
Perhaps, Brigadier General Sinas was referring to the around 3,000 anti-illegal drug operations the CCPO conducted during her stint, which resulted in the arrest of 2,134 drug users and 2,054 drug pushers.
The numbers might be impressive. Then again, they’re only numbers.