Marantan, 12 police officers plead not guilty in Atimonan massacre case

GMA News TV's News TV Live reported that supporters of Marantan staged a rally calling for justice for the police official who has been detained in Camp Crame since last year.

 

Aside from Marantan, who served as Region IV-A deputy intelligence head at the time of the massacre, those facing multiple murder charges before the Regional Trial Court of Gumaca in Quezon province are:

 

 

The complaints were filed by the families of the 13 victims, including environmentalist Jun Lontok, 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 (NBI), which earlier 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.

 

Marantan, who was wounded in the incident, and his men had repeatedly insisted the incident was a shootout as it was a legitimate operation against criminal elements and even claimed his wounds were the result of the exchange of gunfire between his group and the victims.

 

The Mitsubishi Monteros carrying the victims were fired at more than 200 times, according to the NBI report. The entrance bullet holes showed “no indication that any of the passengers of the two vehicles fired shots directed towards the outside.”

 

In its report, the NBI said a turf war between businessman Vic Siman and a certain “Ka Tita” was the most likely motive behind the shooting. Siman was among the fatalities. 

 

Ka Tita was allegedly closely associated with Marantan, who was described in the report as Ka Tita’s protector.

 

In March this year, the Philippine National Police ordered the dismissal from service of the 13 policemen after they were found guilty of serious irregularity in the performance of duty 

 

The decision, signed by PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, said the establishment of checkpoint was authorized but serious irregularity in the performance of duty was committed by the respondents as the police officers involved were not in uniform and there was no PNP-marked vehicle when the incident happened.

 

It added that PNP personnel, as well as other persons in civilian attire displaying high-powered firearms and actively participating in the checkpoint, “have in the first place no business to be at the checkpoint, much more participate in its conduct, basically because of their appearance.”

 

The PNP personnel manning the checkpoints were wearing patrol shirts and not the police General Officer's Attire while others were in plain clothes, the PNP said.

 

The PNP also found the setting up of three “layers” of checkpoints that were 300 to 500 meters away from each other “unusual since the personnel manning each layer could hardly see each other.” He said the “layers” should be considered as individual checkpoints separate and distinct from each other and not as mere layers of a single checkpoint.

 

He also added that the first checkpoint was set up in Plaridel, Quezon, which was beyond the jurisdiction of the Atimonan police. The first and second checkpoints were also manned by three to four personnel and did not comply with the required seven-man team. There was also no investigation sub-team present at the time of the incident.

 

It further said that the absence of a marked PNP vehicle in the second checkpoint is a violation of the PNP rule on setting up checkpoints. — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News