Atimonan: Still no justice after a year
A member of the National Bureau of Investigation forensic team examines marks left by a hail of bullets that hit this SUV and another vehicle, and killed all 13 onboard, including police officers and soldiers. Most of the bullets were believed to have been fired by a police-military team stationed at a checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RAFFY LERMA
LUCENA CITY—Families of the 13 victims of the Atimonan rubout have appealed to the Aquino administration to expedite the resolution of the case and punish the guilty.
It has been nearly a year but the victims’ families have yet “to see and feel the justice” for the brutal killings, said Belle Lontok-Evangelista, a sister of Tirso Lontok Jr., one of the 13 victims or collectively known as Atimonan 13.
She called on President Benigno Aquino III, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Commission on Human Rights Chair Loretta Ann Rosales to help the grieving families of the victims who were shot dead exactly a year ago on Monday in what police and the military said was a shootout between soldiers and a police team, and a group of alleged guns for hire, but what relatives of the victims maintained was a “rubout.” (See What Went Before at the end of the article.)
No longer being covered
Evangelista, in a phone interview on Saturday, also urged the media to continue following up the case, as it was being edged out by other events.
“Please continue to drumbeat the case. It is no longer being covered by the media,” she said in a follow-up text message.
Activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes, Lontok’s associate in environmental protection advocacy, called on Mr. Aquino to offer three gifts on Sunday—the Feast of the Three Kings—to the Filipino people, particularly to victims of extrajudicial killings.
Asking for 3 gifts
Reyes said the gifts should include speedy and effective justice, in particular for the Atimonan 13, and the prosecution of all corrupt government officials, whether opposition or administration; the creation of a serious and comprehensive environment- and people-protection program drawing from the lessons of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and climate change; and the promotion of people empowerment.
On Jan. 6 last year, Lontok and 12 other men who were riding in two vehicles were shot by policemen and Army soldiers at a checkpoint that had been set up on Maharlika Highway in Barangay Lumutan, Atimonan, Quezon province.
Supt. Hansel Marantan, then deputy chief of intelligence of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) police, led the operation that supposedly targeted Victor Siman, alleged to be the head of an illegal gambling and gun-for-hire syndicate, following information that the group would be passing through the highway in Atimonan.
Aside from Lontok and Siman, three police officers and three military men were also among those killed by Marantan’s group, which was backed up by members of the Army Special Forces.
No legitimate shootout
The National Bureau of Investigation, following a thorough investigation, concluded that the encounter, despite the gunshot wound to the leg that Marantan suffered, was not a legitimate shootout but a rubout.
Last September, the Department of Justice filed multiple murder charges against 13 policemen for the mass killing.
One of the suspects, Supt. Ramon Balauag, who headed the intelligence unit of the Quezon provincial police, went into hiding in July. He, however, was arrested two weeks ago in Clark, Pampanga province, following his arrival from Qatar.
Despite the filing of murder charges against the 13 policemen, the victims’ families said there had been no progress in the case.
“Nothing happened during the hearing last month. No one among the prosecutors attended the hearing,” said Evangelista.
She said the Lontok clan would hold the traditional “babang luksa” (end of mourning) and prayers in their Dolores, Quezon hometown on Monday.
Some members of the family will be visiting the site in Atimonan to light candles and offer prayers for the repose of the souls of the rubout victims.
What went before
On January 6, 2013, Victor “Vic” Siman, a suspected “jueteng” operator in Southern Luzon, and 12 others people, including three policemen and three soldiers, were killed in what the Quezon police reported as a shootout between a team of policemen and soldiers and a group of alleged guns for hire at a security checkpoint on Maharlika Highway in Atimonan.
There were 15 policemen at the security checkpoint, supported by 10 soldiers from the Army’s First Special Forces Battalion. The exchange of gunfire reportedly lasted for 18 minutes.
Siman’s group was wiped out, but on the government’s side only the police team leader, Supt. Hansel Marantan, suffered gunshot wounds in the hands and knees.
The relatives of the alleged criminals have claimed that what happened was not a gunfight, but that the 13 were victims of a rubout.
On Jan. 8, 2013, President Benigno Aquino III ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the incident. He directed the Philippine National Police to continue with its fact-finding inquiry into the firearms and vehicles that figured in the incident, and submit its findings to the NBI.
A day after, PNP Director General Alan Purisima ordered the suspension of the Quezon police chief, Senior Supt. Valeriano de Leon, and Marantan.
On Jan. 11, 2013, the NBI said it would expand its investigation and look into the role in the incident of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), following a report that the anticrime superbody had approved the operation.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., who chairs the PAOCC, denied having approved the operation. The NBI probe showed that the PAOCC had indeed disapproved the plan, called “Coplan Armado,” but had nevertheless given Marantan’s group P100,000 for intelligence buildup.
Supt. Glenn Dumlao, commander of the Calabarzon Public Safety Battalion, said the regional police went ahead with the mission even without PAOCC approval on the presumption of regularity because it was their job to go after organized crime groups.
On Jan. 15, 2013, the PNP fact-finding committee submitted its report to the NBI, which indicated that there was no shootout. It also said there was a deliberate effort to make the crime scene look like the site of a gunbattle.
The committee found that excessive force was used, as shown by the gunshot wounds of the victims and the number of bullet holes on their vehicles: vehicle 1 with 174 entry bullet holes and vehicle 2 with 45 entry bullet holes. Eleven victims had been shot in the head.
On Jan. 24, 2013, Purisima approved the recommendation of the PNP Internal Affairs Service to bring administrative charges against 22 policemen who were involved in the incident for violation of police operational procedures.
Twenty policemen were placed under the custody of the police in Camp Crame while 15 soldiers of the Army’s Special Forces, who were part of an augmentation team, were restricted to quarters at the Army Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio.
On March 6, 2013, after a thorough review of the NBI’s executive report on the Atimonan incident, the President ordered the filing of multiple murder charges against 35 police officers and Army soldiers.
On March 11, 2013, the NBI filed multiple murder charges in the Department of Justice against 14 policemen and 11 soldiers for the killing of Siman and 12 others in Atimonan.
The NBI also brought charges of obstruction of justice against eight policemen and one soldier in connection with the incident, described as a “rubout,” or summary execution.
On March 19, 2013, the DOJ issued subpoenas for 25 security personnel allegedly involved in the killings and scheduled the start of the preliminary investigation for April 8, 2013.
On Sept. 19, 2013, the DOJ filed multiple murder charges against Marantan and 12 other policemen for the alleged massacre.
The DOJ dismissed the multiple murder complaint against former Calabarzon police chief, Supt. James Andres Melad, and 11 soldiers for lack of or insufficiency of evidence.
On Sept. 20, 2013, Judge Maria Chona Pulgar-Navarro of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 61 in Gumaca, Quezon, issued arrest warrants for Marantan and 12 other policemen—Supt. Ramon Balauag, Chief Insp. Grant Gollod, Senior Insp. John Paolo Carracedo, SPO3 Joselito de Guzman, SPO1 Carlo Cataquiz, SPO1 Arturo Sarmiento, PO3 Eduardo Oronan, PO2 Nelson Indal, PO2 Al Bhazar Jailani, PO1 Wryan Sardea and PO1 Rodel Talento aka Rodel Tolentino.
The PNP spokesperson, Senior Supt. Wilben Mayor, however, said that three of those charged with multiple counts of murder have gone missing from the PNP headquarters transient barracks where they had been ordered to stay during the investigation. Indal and Jailani were reported missing in the first week of September. Balauag, their superior, was also reported missing since July 8.
On Dec. 18, 2013, Balauag was arrested by immigration personnel at Clark International Airport in Pampanga, having just arrived from Doha, Qatar. Purisima confirmed the arrest of Balauag, the former chief of the intelligence branch of the Quezon Police Provincial Office, who had been in hiding for five months. Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research
Source: Inquirer Archives
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