Even by the usual standards in the Philippines, where crime is an accepted part of life, the brazen evening robbery of a jewelry store in one of the world’s largest malls shocked residents of Manila.
Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima has ordered checkpoints during the day to enforce the election gun ban.
President Aquino sees no reason to doubt Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, the administration’s anticrime czar whose name has been dragged into the police killing of 13 alleged criminals in Atimonan, Quezon, on Jan. 6.
Sacked Chief Superintendent James Melad, the former director of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regions, admitted he gave the go-signal to put up the checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon, on January 6 where 13 people were killed.
Standing by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) witnesses who claimed the Jan. 6 encounter in Atimonan, Quezon was not a shootout, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima asked the 25 Army soldiers and police operatives who took part there to “speak the truth” and promised the government would protect them should they do so.
The initial findings in the investigation of the gun-slaying of 13 people in Atimonan, Quezon province, on Jan. 6, have bolstered the suspicions of some residents here that a similar event that happened here two months ago was also a police rubout.
Justice Secretary Leila De Lima is convinced that the incident in Atimonan, Quezon where 13 people were killed is “definitely not a shootout.”
The investigation of the killing of 13 people in a supposed gun battle between government security forces and alleged criminals in Atimonan, Quezon province, on Jan. 6 has become test of President Aquino’s good government policy, Malacañang acknowledged on Wednesday.
Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will go to Atimonan, Quezon to reenact the incident where 13 people were killed last Jan. 6 including three soldiers, 3 police officers and an environmentalist.
The commander of the Calabarzon Public Safety Battalion Glen Dumlao on Wednesday defended Coplan Armado, the operation that led to the death of 13 people last Jan. 6.
House minority leader Danilo Suarez will insist on having a congressional inquiry into the Quezon shooting incident which left 13 people dead.
The 25 soldiers involved in an alleged shootout in Atimonan, Quezon that left out 13 people dead early this month have been restricted to their barracks pending the investigation of the case, the military said.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) would still be investigated in connection with the Jan. 6 shooting in Atimonan, Quezon, that left 13 dead, even if the body has denied ever approving the police operation against alleged jueteng operator Victor Siman, one of the fatalities in the alleged shootout, Malacañang said on Sunday.
