Kin facing long wait in Atimonan rubout case
In this Jan. 6, 2013, file photo released by the Philippine National Police Quezon Provincial Director’s Office, Quezon provincial police chief Valeriano de Leon, right, looks at a bullet-riddled vehicle at a checkpoint along a road in the town of Atimonan in Quezon province. AP FILE PHOTO/PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE QUEZON PROVINCIAL DIRECTOR’S OFFICE
The families of 13 men killed in the “Atimonan rubout” a year ago may have to endure a long wait before administrative sanctions could be imposed on 22 policemen tagged in the killings.
The Philippine National Police on Monday said only one of the four administrative cases filed against the policemen had progressed.
Citing due process, Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP public information office chief, admitted that the resolution of the charges had been delayed in the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS).
Under IAS rules, administrative cases brought against policemen should be resolved by the office within 90 days.
“Administrative charges are more cumbersome and tedious because there is a judicial process that we have to observe,” Sindac told a press briefing at Camp Crame.
“You should also consider that there are 22 personnel involved in this case. They are represented by different lawyers who file numerous pleadings with the IAS,” he said.
One recommendation
Of the four charges against the policemen, he said the IAS had submitted a recommendation only on the case for “serious irregularity in the performance of duties” to PNP Director General Alan Purisima.
It would be up to Purisima to approve or disapprove the IAS recommendation, Sindac said.
If found guilty, Sindac said the policemen may be dismissed from the service.
“The IAS recommendation is now under review by the Office of the Chief PNP,” he said.
Still pending with the IAS are the charges for grave misconduct, less grave misconduct and neglect of duty.
In September last year, Purisima told reporters that he instructed Director Alexander Roldan, IAS chief, to expedite the resolution of the cases.
Despite the slow action at the IAS, Sindac said the cases were moving, and promised that there would be no whitewash.
“The summary hearings are still [going on]. But the IAS [has to] consider the various pleadings, motions and manifestations being filed by the lawyers of the policemen involved,” he said.
Of the 22 policemen implicated in what the National Bureau of Investigation concluded was a “rubout,” Sindac said 13 had been ordered arrested by the Regional Trial Court in Gumaca town, Quezon province.
Detained at Crame
Eleven of those ordered arrested, including the team leader of the police operation, Supt. Hansel Marantan, are being held at the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame.
One of those ordered arrested, PO2 Al-bhazar Jailani, has gone AWOL (absence without leave) while another, Senior Insp. Timoteo Orig, has filed a motion for judicial determination of probable cause.
Sindac said seven of the policemen had been placed under restrictive custody and two were exonerated.
One of the 22 respondents, Insp. Ivaristo San Juan, has retired from the service and received his retirement benefits in full.
The family of environmentalist Tirso Lontok Jr., one of the 13 men police allegedly summarily executed at a checkpoint in Atimonan town in Quezon on Jan. 6 last year, pleaded with the administration of President Aquino on Monday to expedite the resolution of the case.
Lontok’s wife, Marife, said the case was moving too slowly, with state prosecutors not appearing in the first hearing in the Gumaca court in November.
Prosecutors present
The Department of Justice (DOJ) denied that on Monday, saying in a statement that the first hearing was held on Sept. 27, with prosecutors Cesar Angelo Chavez and Jayvee Bandong of the National Prosecution Service main office and Jose Federico Genrado of the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Quezon attending.
The DOJ said the prosecutors filed a motion for a hold-departure order against all the accused and a motion for reconsideration of the court’s order to arrest Orig.
The defense filed several motions, including a motion for reconsideration of the court’s order to arrest the defendants.
The latest hearing was held on Nov. 29, for submission of the opposition to the motions brought by the defense, the DOJ said.
The opposition was filed by the prosecutors “even before the scheduled hearing,” the department said.
‘Rubout’
Killed with Lontok in the police operation called “Coplan: Armado,” was alleged jueteng operator Victor “Vic” Siman and 11 other men who, Marantan insisted, were members of an illegal gambling and guns for hire syndicate in the Southern Luzon region.
The regional police reported the incident as a “shootout,” but the NBI investigation found no evidence of an exchange of gunfire between Siman’s group and Marantan’s police team, which was backed up by troops from the Philippine Army Special Forces.
The NBI also brought criminal charges against 11 of the soldiers.
President Aquino promised that justice would be served, but Lontok’s father said on Monday that he feared a way out would be found for the accused policemen after the end of Aquino’s term in 2016.
Tirso Lontok Sr. said the accused were “powerful and influential.”—With a report from Jerome Aning
Originally posted: 7:26 pm | Monday, January 6th, 2014
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