Multiple murder raps filed vs cops, soldiers in Atimonan bloodbath

Multiple murder charges were filed on Monday against 35 policemen and soldiers in connection with the January 6 bloodbath in Atimonan, Quezon which left 13 people dead. The Justice Department will form a five-member panel to handle the preliminary investigation on the complaint against the security forces headed by Superintendent Hansel Marantan.

 

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano personally received the criminal complaint filed by the families of the 13 victims who were gunned down at a checkpoint by a joint force from the local police and military. The families filed the complaint with the help of the National Bureau of Investigation.

 

"From the foregoing pieces of evidence, it is patently clear that the acts of the police officers and the soldiers showed a community of purpose or an implied conspiracy," read the complaint.

 

"There was unity in the purpose and action, signifying that they were all moved by a single criminal intent," the complainants added.

 

They said there was no indication that the implicated government forces "desisted or prevented their group from shooting the victims" even if one of them was already raising his hands in surrender.

 

Apart from violation of Article 247 (Murder) of the Revised Penal Code, nine of the implicated men were seperately charged for violation of Presidential Decree No. 1829 (Obstruction of Justice).

 

The complainants said what ground commander Marantan's group carried out on that day was not a checkpoint operation, but a "dragnet," and that no one from the implicated individuals tried intervening, showing a "concerted effort to perpetuate the commission of the crime." At Fort Bonifacio, Army chief Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes said legal assistance will be provided to the soldiers involved in the incident. "We cannot abandon our soldiers when we know that what they did [was done] in good faith,"  Coballes said. Turf rivalry?

 

Just last week, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the incident was probably the result of a turf rivalry in the region between the group led by Vic Siman, who was one of the fatalities, and the group of a certain "Ka Tita," supposedly a club operator in Ermita, Manila, who later became a "video karera" operator in Laguna. The NBI said Marantan is closely associated with, and is the alleged protector of Ka Tita.

 

"The Atimonan encounter was a well calculated plan to close the book on Vic Siman under the pretext of Coplan Armado, using government forces and resources. The fault of the other victims was that they were with the wrong company, at the wrong place and at the wrong time," the NBI said in its executive report.

 

Investigators also found that prescribed procedures in setting up checkpoints under Section 1 to 9, Rule 25 of the PNP Operational Procedures were violated.

 

The NBI noted the lack of signage for the main checkpoint, the failure of the personnel manning the checkpoints to were the prescribed uniform and, the absence of PNP marked vehicles.

 

The PNP's rules of engagement for checkpoints were also not followed when the operating team "forcibly tried to open the window of the SUV; when, at the outset, they pointed their guns at the two SUVs and subsequently fired at and killed the victims."

 

Aside from Marantan, other PNP and AFP personnel recommended to be charged with multiple murder are:

 

From PNP

 

From AFP

 

 

'Kill Victor Siman and company'

 

The NBI report revealed that "the apparent objective of the operation was to kill all the victims."

 

The NBI quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the operatives still shot two of the victims who were able to get out of the vehicles during the firing. One of them was "already in a desperate act of surrender, with both hands in the air."

 

"From all indications, the intent of the operatives was not to conduct a usual checkpoint operation, which is to check on possible violation of laws that may be committed by individuals and motorists plying along the road and highways," the report read.

 

"Rather, the checkpoint was intended to kill Victor Siman and company," it added.

 

According to an NBI forensic chemist, there were 196 bullet entrance holes on the first Montero SUV (plate number VIC 27) and 61 bullet entrance holes in the second Montero SUV (plate number SFM).

 

The report said the entrance bullet holes showed that: "[T]here is no indication that any of the passengers of the two vehicles fired shots directed towards the outside."

 

The bullet holes also revealed that some of the shots were fired at close range —between 8 and 36 inches from the gun muzzle to the target—as evidenced by "tattooing, smudging, and soot,” which are all indicators of close-range firing.

 

The presence of gun powder nitrates on the shirts of victims Victor Siman, Leonard Marasigan, and Conrado Decillo also supported claims that they were shot at close range or within 36 inches, the report added.

 

Marantan, who was wounded in the incident, and his men had repeatedly insisted the incident was a shootout, and even claimed his wounds were the result of the exchange of gunfire between his group and the victims. — RSJ, GMA News