Passengers glance at the bullet-riddled vehicle of suspected criminals along a road in the town of Atimonan in Quezon province, about 140 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines late Sunday Jan. 6, 2013. Philippine army special forces and police killed 13 suspected criminals in a gunbattle Sunday in the latest violence to erupt in the country in the past week. AP
MANILA, Philippines–Expanding its investigation into the alleged shootout in Atimonan, Quezon, the National Bureau of Investigation will quiz personnel of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission who were reportedly involved in the police-military operation.
The anticrime superbody, which is composed of 10 security, law enforcement and intelligence departments and agencies, is chaired by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.
Ochoa, who vehemently denied approving the operation that eventually claimed the lives of 13 people, on Friday pledged full cooperation to the NBI investigation
In an ambush interview in Malacañang, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that the role of PAOCC “should be looked into by the NBI, definitely, because one of the core questions that should be (answered) is: what (was) that mission all about?”
“The directive of the President is to conduct a full, thorough, exhaustive and credible investigation. He really wants to know the truth. We will have to ascertain the facts and determine and set out the truth. What exactly was that incident, what really happened?
“The President wants to get to the bottom of things and even the exact record of Superintendent (Hansel) Marantan–that should be looked into, as well. We are going to review all those alleged cases or similar incidents that Superintendent Hansel Marantan have been involved. That is definitely part of the inquiry,” said De Lima.
Marantan was the leader of the checkpoint in the coastal town of Atimonan who was curiously the only one injured during the January 6 alleged shootout that killed all passengers of two sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
Amid President Benigno Aquino’s candid admission to the media that the initial report of a shootout was inconsistent with what was later discovered at the crime scene, De Lima had other troubling questions running through her head.
“First, what was the background of that mission? Who authorized it? And then what exactly is that mission?”
She noted that newspapers were coming out with “varying speculations … although it has been widely reported that it has something to do with the illegal numbers game … (a) jueteng turf war.”
She was referring to the numbers racket that was widely perceived to be the motive behind the deadly Atimonan shooting.
“But it is exactly part of the assignment of the NBI, as the sole investigative body tasked to look into that particular incident, to know exactly what was the mission (all about),” said De Lima.
De Lima told reporters that she did not ask Ochoa, who like her was at Friday’s vin d’honneur, or traditional New Year’s reception, in Malacañang about “Coplan Armado” because sensitive issues should not be discussed informally, but through “formal channels.”
“I just saw him now, but we have not discussed it yet. It’s not going to be proper for me to be asking questions about that. If at all, that I will be asking questions about that, it has to be, more or less, official or formal.
“I don’t want to be getting information informally or off the record–things like that–because that’s not proper. If I need to communicate to him officially, if I need to write to him, I will do that, or if I need to set up a particular proceedings in order to summon certain people to shed light on the facts that are coming out, I will do that,” said De Lima.
According to her, the NBI is now tracing the routes taken by the two SUVs prior to the Atimonan incident.
“And then, what came out in the headline of today’s broadsheet (Inquirer) … we have to look into that. I think, it should be easy to verify from the PAOCC whether that was an operation that has been sanctioned or not by the PAOCC. And then, if it’s sanctioned by the PAOCC, what kind of operation was that?” she said Friday.
But she did recognize that Ochoa had already belied the story. “If you go by, also, the news reports about the denial of ES (Executive Secretary) Ochoa that he knew (nothing) about the mission order, then we will look into it. And I think, they’re open to investigation also, I mean, to be part of the investigation,” she said.