Two of three burglars were killed in a shoot-out with the police who became aware of their presence after one of the thieves accidentally fired his gun as they were trying to break into a house in Quezon City before dawn Tuesday.
The National Bureau of Investigation has found that the killing of 13 people at a joint police-military checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon province, on Jan. 6 was a “conspiracy,” and decided to bring criminal charges against the policemen and soldiers involved.
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.
PNP Director General Alan Purisima reminded policemen of these basic tenets as the 148,000-strong force prepared to mark its 22nd anniversary on Sunday, under a new brand: “Serbisyong Makatotohanan (Genuine Service).”
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has ordered the stricter implementation of its policy prohibiting policemen on active duty from moonlighting as security escorts for private individuals in the wake of the Atimonan, Quezon, shooting.
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.
Sacked Calabarzon Police Regional Director James Melad insisted on Wednesday that the Atimonan, Quezon operation that led to the deaths of 13 people, had the blessings of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.
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.
Chief Superintendent James Melad, the regional director of the Calabarzon police, accepted on Wednesday the decision of Malacañang to relieve him from his post in the wake of the controversies surrounding the police operations in Atimonan, Quezon and in San Juan, Batangas that led to the deaths of a total of 14 people linked to crimes.
Malacañang confirmed on Tuesday that the preventive suspension of officials of the Police Regional Office 4A, as announced by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, had the blessing of President Aquino.
Activist priest, Fr. Robert Reyes, urged the media on Monday, to keep up the coverage of the killing of 13 people in a supposed shootout in Atimonan, Quezon province, last Jan. 6 to prevent any whitewash that had once thwarted justice in the infamous “Kuratong Baleleng” gang rubout in 1995.
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.
