PNP chief dismayed over sloppy report on Atimonan shooting

Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Alan Purisima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The final report of the police fact-finding team looking into the Atimonan shooting that took the lives of 13 people has not yet been forwarded to the National Bureau of Investigation because it will still be subjected to heavy rewriting.

Speaking to reporters, Philippine National Police chief, Director General Alan Purisima, said the full report has been submitted to him earlier Monday, but was returned to the team because of the “poor organization of the facts.”

“Ibinalik ko po sa kanila dahil hindi po maganda yung . . . porma (I returned it to them because it was sloppy),” Purisima said, noting that it should be formed in a way that even non-investigators can understand.

Purisima said he gave the group headed by Chief Superintendent Federico Castro until the end of the day (Monday) to “reformat their report and be clear on what they are threading.”

Meanwhile, Purisima remained mum on the team’s conclusion that will confirm or deny a newspaper report quoting an unidentified source as saying that what happened in Atimonan town in Quezon province last January 6 could possibly be an ambush, and not a shootout.

Instead, Purisima said, “We may have our conclusions on our part but this is the job now of the National Bureau of Investigation.”

“. . . kaya nga binigay sa National Bureau of Investigation para yung gobyerno ay hindi mapupulaan na naging [hindi] impartial dito sa imbestigasyon na ito (…that’s why this will be handed to the National Bureau of Investigation so that the government would not be suspected of being not impartial in this investigation),” Purisima added.