Chief Superintendent James Melad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Sacked Calabarzon Police Chief James Melad called on the media to stop commenting on what happened on the January 6 Atimonan, Quezon shooting incident where 13 people were killed and wait for the result of the investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
At a press conference at the NBI, Melad said those at the area of the incident have already made and submitted a report to authorities.
Asked about the contents of the report he said, “the way it was reported, the PNP elements were provoked meaning inunahan sila sa putok.”
“Yun ang report ng tao natin doon (That was the report of our people there). I was not at the crime scene, even the reporters were not at the crime scene at the time of the incident. So, I cannot comment kung ano nangyari (on what happened), pati kayo rin walang karapatan na mag-comment dahil wala rin kayo sa crime scene (the media are not in the position to comment because they were not at the crime scene). You can only render speculations and conjectures,” Melad said.
“We leave it to the investigators to do their thing and find out the truth of the matter,” he added.