Police officers in Atimonan slay say they were abandoned
MANILA, Philippines—Detained policemen facing charges for the killing of 13 men in Atimonan, Quezon, a year ago have assailed their superiors and the leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for abandoning them and failing to “protect us for doing our jobs.”
“They did not defend us. It’s their responsibility to defend us,” Supt. Hansel Marantan, the team leader of the controversial police operation, said in an interview on Tuesday at the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame.
On Jan. 6, 2013, a party of 13 people, headed by an alleged illegal numbers game, or jueteng, operator named Vic Siman, were met with a hail of gunfire from a team of soldiers and policemen at a checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon.
The law enforcers claimed that Siman and his companions were killed in a shootout in a police operation against guns-for-hire and jueteng operators. The families of the victims claim that it was a “rubout” and are demanding justice for their loved ones.
Marantan, the only one to have been injured on the law enforcers’ side in the bloody incident, has been detained at the Camp Crame jail along with 10 coaccused since being released from the PNP General Hospital more than three months ago.
As an intelligence operative, Marantan said it was not his responsibility to explain what happened “because my job is to fight criminals and arrest them.”
“We were abandoned,” he said firmly.
“We can’t help but be emotional. The PNP should have come to our side and protected us just like what the Army did to the soldiers who took part in the operation,” he said.
Supt. Ramon Balauag, who was fired as the intelligence chief of the Quezon police after the incident, expressed his disappointment with the treatment he and his companions got from the PNP.
He stressed that he and his men only provided assistance to Marantan, the deputy chief of the Calabarzon police at the time who had conceived the “Coplan Armado” against the Siman group.
“We do not regret what we have done. It’s part of our job as police officers,” Balauag said.
“What hurt us is the fact that we were abandoned. Why did they not include De Leon in the case? How about General Melad? They all approved the operation. We will not act on our own without the knowledge and approval of our bosses,” he said.
Balauag was referring to Senior Supt. Valeriano de Leon, the Quezon provincial police director who was his immediate superior, and Chief Supt. James Melad, who has been relieved as Calabarzon police director.
De Leon and Melad were exonerated in the multiple murder case during the preliminary investigation of the Department of Justice.
They had been placed under restrictive custody at Camp Crame over the four administrative cases filed against them at the PNP Internal Affairs Service.
