Cops axed as PNP probe team finds 'violations' in deadly Quezon incident

From InterAksyon (Jan 9): Cops axed as PNP probe team finds 'violations' in deadly Quezon incident

The policemen who helped man the checkpoint at which 13 persons, described by authorities as suspected criminals but included three police and two military personnel, were killed in an alleged shootout on Sunday have been relieved after a fact-finding team found them in violation of procedures. Also relieved was Senior Superintendent Valeriano de Leon, the Quezon provincial police director, and Chief Inspector Grant Gollod, police chief of Atimonan town, where the incident happened.

The most glaring infraction found by the Philippine National Police fact-finding team led by Chief Superintendent Federico Castro, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, was that the 15 policemen led by Superintendent Hansel Marantan, deputy intelligence chief of the Calabarzon regional police, who manned the main checkpoint where the supposed shootout broke out were not in uniform. Marantan was wounded in the incident.

The relieved officials have been reassigned to Camp Crame while the rest of the policemen have been restricted to quarters at Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna.Purisima told a news conference on Wednesday that the only uniformed personnel at the main checkpoint were Gollod and around 20 soldiers who had joined the operation, ostensibly to intercept a gang of guns-for-hire, as well as seven Atimonan policemen manning slowdown markers 50 meters before and after the main roadblock.

Only one of the markers had a marked police vehicle parked alongside."Dapat laging naka-uniform sa checkpoint. There is no excuse na hindi dapat mag-uniform (Personnel should be in uniform at checkpoints. There is no excuse for not being in uniform)," Purisima said. "Checkpoints are the function of uniformed personnel and should be led by a uniformed officer."

Purisima also questioned what Marantan, an intelligence officer, was doing at the operation.
"Intelligence operatives are made to gather info. Hindi sila nagko-conduct ng operation (They do not conduct actual operations). So ‘yung intel operatives natin (So our intel operatives) will gather info … and these will be submitted, processed and become evidence ... if they are in uniform, they can be there (at the checkpoint)," the PNP chief said.

Over 200 bullet holes

Announcing the findings of the fact-finding team, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II said the two Montero SUVs that the 13 fatalities were riding had over 200 bullet holes. The first vehicle had 186 bullet holes, mostly from M16 assault rifles, the second, 50, although investigators had yet to determine how many of these were entry holes and how many exit. The team also said the fatalities only had P265,000 on them, not the millions of pesos mentioned in media reports.

Firearms

Of the 13 dead, eight tested positive during paraffin tests, although Roxas said this finding does not prove they had fired their weapons. Also, while 13 of the 14 recovered firearms were licensed, only seven were covered by permits to be carried outside residences.

Roxas said he is giving the PNP fact-finding until Friday to finalize its report, which will then be submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the only agency authorized by President Benigno Aquino III to probe the incident. The Interior secretary reiterated his pledge that there would be no whitewash in the investigation of the incident, which the families of the dead claim was a rubout.

In related developments, the military's Southern Luzon Command has created its own fact-finding team to determine the involvement of its personnel in the incident. Colonel Generoso Bolina said Brigadier General Alan Luga, Solcom commander, ordered the creation of the team even if the military has maintained the operation and the ensuing "shootout" was legitimate.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/52307/cops-axed-as-pnp-probe-team-finds-violations-in-deadly-quezon-incident