Palace anti-crime body will still be probed over Quezon shootout

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) would still be investigated in connection with the Jan. 6 shooting in Atimonan, Quezon, that left 13 dead, even if the body has denied ever approving the police operation against alleged jueteng operator Victor Siman, one of the fatalities in the alleged shootout, Malacañang said on Sunday.

President Benigno Aquino III expects investigators to come out with the results “very, very soon,’’ and declared that police and military personnel involved in the gun battle would be held liable for any violation of the law.

“The NBI is the sole investigative body that was tasked by the President to investigate the Atimonan incident.  It is duty-bound to investigate and to look at all possible angles and leads relative to the case,’’ Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson, said over government-run dzRB.

Valte, however, deferred to the NBI investigators to determine where the buck stopped after the PAOCC disowned the operation against Siman.

“I think we should leave the investigation first [to the NBI]. Let us allow the investigators to do their work because, at this point, all the facts are not yet in. So it’s better for the investigation to be completed, and let us allow the report to speak for itself,’’ she said.

The PAOCC, a body under the Office of the President and chaired by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., has kept a low profile until the clash between government security forces and alleged guns for hire blew up in the media.

It came out in the reports that the PAOCC had knowledge of the case operational plan, dubbed “Coplan Armado.’’ Ochoa and PAOCC executive director Chief Supt. Reginal Villasanta, however, flatly denied reports that the commission approved the operation.

Villasanta confirmed receiving a project proposal, last November, from Supt. Hansel Marantan, leader of the team that manned the checkpoint in Atimonan and that allegedly fought Siman’s group. He said Marantan and Supt. Glen Dumlao sought permission to conduct the operation in Quezon, but this was rejected.

Dumlao, commander of the Calabarzon Public Safety Battalion, claimed that the regional police went ahead with the mission even without the PAOCC’s go-signal.

Siman and 12 others were killed in the alleged 20-minute gun battle at a checkpoint along a sparsely populated stretch of the Maharlika Highway in Atimonan. Marantan was the only one hurt among 50 policemen and Army special forces troops that allegedly shot it out with Siman’s group.

Law enforcers had tagged the victims as members of a private armed group, gun-for-hire and illegal gambling syndicate. The families of the victims strongly denied the accusations.

Speculations had swirled that the gunbattle was an offshoot of a turf war over a numbers racket gone awry.

In last Thursday afternoon’s dialogue with reporters of Radio Mindanao Network in Malacañang, the President disclosed his expectations of the investigation led by the NBI.

“I expect results very, very soon as to what actually transpired and, if there are people who violated any of our laws, they will be made accountable,’’ he said.

The President, who has ordered a full and exhaustive investigation of the alleged clash, had expressed doubts that the Quezon encounter was a shootout.  He said the use of deadly force was “authorized only in self-defense or defense of others.’’

Valte said it would be up to the NBI to establish why the police team went ahead with the operation even without a clearance from the PAOCC.

“Let us allow the investigators to answer these questions and to find the pieces of evidence that support the answers to these questions,’’ she said.

According to Villasanta, the role and mandate of the PAOCC were entirely different from the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.

While PAOCTF operated on the ground, PAOCC was strictly involved in “providing support and capacity building,’’ he said.

Valte said the President did not impose a deadline for the investigation, saying it would be unwise to rush probers to complete their investigation.

“We’re not giving any timetable because the tendency is to rush investigation and sacrifice the quality of the investigation just to meet the timetable. So they will finish the investigation in the best time that they can,’’ she said.