House of Representatives quad panel hearing on POGOs, illegal drugs, EJK: Resource person PDL Jimmy Fortaleza (right) identifies former Director of the Cebu City Police Office PCol Royina Garma (left). Also in photo are BuCor C/SSupt. Gerardo Padilla, PLTCol. Jovie Espenido, Atty. Neri Colmenares. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has freed a convicted former policeman who appeared last month in a House inquiry and implicated Royina Garma, then a regional commander of the Philippine National Police, in the killing of three Chinese drug trafficking convicts in 2016.
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BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. announced on Friday the “immediate” release of Jimmy Fortaleza, saying a Muntinlupa court had granted his petition for habeas corpus and a reduction of his sentence with the application of the special time allowance for loyalty (STAL).
Citing the decision of Judge Gener Gito of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206, Catapang said the STAL made Fortaleza eligible for release even though he had only served 29 years and five months out of his 32-year prison sentence.
Fortaleza was convicted in June 2008 of triple murder and arbitrary detention, for which he was sent to the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF).
House testimony
On Aug. 28, he appeared before the House quad committee and corroborated the testimony of two other prisoners on the killing of the Chinese inmates at the DPPF.
READ: Garma reduced to tears under House grilling, then detained
He claimed that before the killing, Garma talked on the phone with then DPPF warden Gerardo Padilla about the plot against the Chinese.
Fortaleza said his mobile phone was used by Padilla in the conversation with Garma, who was also one of Fortaleza’s police academy classmates.
Padilla also testified later about the call, alleging that Garma pressured him not to intervene in the plot.
Garma, whom then President Duterte later appointed general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, denied the allegations.
Fortaleza was in the custody of the House as a quad committee witness when the BuCor announced his release on Friday.