Checkpoint cops face raps; Palace backs De Lima
Charges await the team of soldiers and policemen led by Superintendent Hansel Marantan for the killing of 13 men in Atimonan, Quezon last Jan. 6, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.
And Malacaang is supporting her in her actions.
“By claiming that it was a shootout, the operatives/soldiers present during the incident admit that they killed the victims. The burden of proof is shifted on them to show that unlawful aggression came from (Victor) Siman et al. And that’s the function of their defense, either in the conduct of preliminary investigation and/or trial,” De Lima told reporters in a text message.
Siman was among the 13 killed in what Marantan and his team described as a shootout.
De Lima did not specify the charges Marantan and the others would face pending the release of the report now being finalized by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), possibly before President Aquino leaves for Switzerland on Wednesday.
Sources said Chief Superintendent James Melad, who was sacked as Calabarzon regional police director, would not be included in the charges.
Melad, who was ordered relieved by Malacaang following the NBI probe on the incident, will instead face administrative sanctions from the Philippine National Police (PNP), the source said.
Sources said NBI investigators are finalizing the report, particularly regarding the slugs recovered and firearms used by police and military personnel to establish “who fired on whom.”
Environmentalist Tirso Lontok Jr., for example, had 14 gunshot wounds, including one to the head, the source said.
“The NBI report is 85 percent complete. We are just gathering more evidence and validating some reports. There was conspiracy between PNP (personnel) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines),” the source added.
About 50 policemen and soldiers took part in the police operations.
The source said all services of the NBI, particularly forensic experts, are working overtime to finalize the report to be submitted to the President before charges are filed within the week.
The NBI is set to hold a case conference today to finalize the report.
De Lima, who has supervision over the NBI, believes the claim of Marantan’s group that the 13 opened fire first was a mere “assertion” to invoke self-defense “as a justifying circumstance” in the mass killing.
De Lima said no witness could bolster Marantan’s claim of a shootout.
Soldiers who participated in the operation claimed they fired their guns into the air. Siman’s two-vehicle convoy was riddled with bullets along the side and in front.
Police investigators counted 186 bullet holes in the lead Montero sport utility vehicle and 50 in the second.
De Lima indicated that the NBI probe is also leading to the same conclusion.
“The operatives’ contrary claim will not affect the direction the NBI is now taking in concluding its report, at least on the aspect of what happened at the incident site on Jan. 6 and the culpability of those involved,” she said.
De Lima said the police-military team’s story was negated by testimonies of two civilian eyewitnesses who were said to be just a few meters away from the site of the killing.
The witnesses, in a re-enactment of the incident last Thursday, recounted that two of the 13 were shot at close range even though they had their hands raised in surrender as they stepped out of the second vehicle.
“We have no reason to doubt the credibility of our witnesses and their story. Their account of the incident negates or debunks the operatives’ and soldiers’ claim of a shootout,” De Lima said.
De Lima said the credibility of their witnesses Ð who are not linked to the parties involved Ð had been established.
She said the testimony of the witnesses, who have been placed under government protection, was supported by physical and forensic evidence.
The NBI would try to submit its initial report to President Aquino before he leaves for Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, De Lima said.
The report will include animated computer graphics of the incident based on the eyewitnesses’ accounts and other evidence.
A police fact- finding team earlier concluded that there was no shootout, and that the 13 had driven into an ambush. The fact-finding team also raised the possibility of evidence tampering at the scene.
Marantan and the other team members earlier accused De Lima of preempting the findings of NBI, even before they could give their side of the story.
The police fact-finding team had earlier complained that the joint police-military team as well as the Calabarzon regional police command had refused to cooperate in the probe.
Chief Superintendent James Melad was subsequently relieved as Calabarzon police chief on orders of President Aquino.
De Lima said she was only relaying the statements of the two witnesses who helped the NBI in drawing a picture of the incident. Ð With Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe