NBI gets sworn statement of police commander in Atimonan shooting

The controversial ground commander in the Jan. 6 supposed shootout in Atimonan, Quezon that left 13 people dead on Friday submitted a sworn statement to the National Bureau of Investigation.

 

Superintendent Hansel Marantan gave an NBI team a four-page sworn affidavit in the presence of his two lawyers at the PNP General Hospital where he is presently confined, radio dzBB's Tuesday Niu reported.

 

The same report said the NBI team did not interview Marantan and stayed no more than 30 minutes in his ward.

 

After visiting Marantan, the NBI team went to the Kiangan area of the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame where the 22 police operatives who took part in the Jan. 6 operation are staying.

 

The dzBB report said the NBI team got some 10 more affidavits from the police. NBI team leader Danielito Lalusis was quoted in the report as saying that they hope to collate the affidavits and submit a report to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima next week.

 

Just last week, Marantan turned over his service firearm to an NBI team that visited him at a hospital in Taguig City. On Thursday, National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima approved the filing of administrative charges against the policemen involved in the supposed shootout.

 

The NBI was tasked by President Benigno Aquino III to look into the Jan. 6 shooting that killed 13 men, including lawmen and an environmentalist.

 

While the NBI initially gave itself until last Wednesday to finish its report, it was not able to submit it to Aquino before he left for a trip to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum meeting. — RSJ, GMA News