Kin say justice slow for rubout victims

In this photo taken in 2014, relatives of the victims of the Atimonan massacre gather in the crime site along Maharlika Highway in Atimonan, Quezon, to offer prayers for their loved ones. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.

LUCENA CITY—Justice continues to elude families of the Atimonan massacre victims, three years after their relatives were killed in what police said was a shootout with a crime gang.

Belle Lontok-Evangelista, sister of slain environmentalist Tirso Lontok Jr., lamented the challenge posed by what she described as “powerful and influential” suspects in their quest for justice.

Tirso was one of the 13 men police allegedly summarily executed at a checkpoint along Maharlika Highway in Atimonan town in Quezon province on Jan. 5, 2013.

She said the accused were able to force a judge handling the case to inhibit herself from the hearing.

“The judge was fair and impartial but they still petitioned her to be [removed from] the case,” she said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

The case had been transferred to Judge Liwliwa Hidalgo-Bucu of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 34 in September last year.

Lontok said they filed an administrative complaint against Bucu in the Supreme Court and petitioned her to inhibit from hearing the case, as they believed she could not stay impartial in hearing the case.

Lontok’s widow, Marife, said the family will travel to Atimonan today to light candles and pray at the site of the killings.

“We’ve been doing the annual rite not only to pray but also to remind the public and the government that justice has yet to be served to pacify the souls of the victims,” she said.

Killed with Lontok in the police operation called “Coplan: Armado,” was suspected jueteng (illegal gambling) operator Victor “Vic” Siman.

Others killed in Atimonan were Gerry Siman, Conrado Decillo, Victor Gonzales, Jimbeam Justiniani, Paul Quiohilag, Supt. Alfredo Consemino, PO1 Jeffrey Valdez, SPO1 Gruet Mantuano, S/Sgt. Armando Lescano, Leonardo Marasigan and Maximo Pelayo.

Supt. Hansel Marantan, then deputy chief of intelligence of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) police, who led the group that conducted the Atimonan operation, insisted that the casualties were members of an illegal gambling and guns-for-hire syndicate operating in Southern Luzon.

A National Bureau of Investigation probe, however, concluded that the incident, despite Marantan’s bullet wound in the leg, was not a legitimate shootout but a rubout.

Twelve policemen, led by Marantan, were charged in the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Gumaca town in Quezon. The case was later transferred to the Manila RTC.