Former police officer and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) manager Royina Garma returned to the country on Saturday night, September 6.
She arrived aboard PR 113 from Los Angeles, California, after previously seeking asylum in the United States following her revelations about abuses committed during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Garma left the Philippines with her daughter on November 7, 2024, but was apprehended by U.S. immigration authorities in San Francisco after her passport was canceled.
It will be recalled that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) filed murder and frustrated murder charges against Garma over the 2021 ambush-slay of former PCSO Board Secretary Wesley Barayuga.