President Aquino orders NBI to conduct full and exhaustive investigation of Quezon shooting incident

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 9): President Aquino orders NBI to conduct full and exhaustive investigation of Quezon shooting incident

President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to ferret out the truth behind the January 6 shootout between government forces and alleged criminals at a checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon province. The Chief Executive said he wants the NBI to conduct a full and exhaustive investigation of said incident that claimed the lives of 13 persons. "Siyempre, unang-unang reaction, labing-tatlong namatay, medyo maraming namatay, tapos may presumption of regularity, initially; may nasugatan on the side of the people who are manning the checkpoint. On the surface, parang may proof na may encounter," the President said in an interview after administering the oath of office to new Philippine ambassadors and government officials in Malacanang Palace on Wednesday.

The President said he is interested in the details of the case amid allegations of a police rubout.
"However, I asked for a lot of the details at doon sa details medyo napag-isip na ako doon sa salaysay na ibinigay, at brining-up (bring up) ko ito kay Director General Alan Purisima and kay Secretary (Mar) Roxas also to look into what seemingly was not normative or normal behavior," the President said.

He stressed that he opted to first wait for the official results of the NBI probe rather than discuss the details of the development of the investigation. "Sorry, I’m a bit hesitant to talk about the details---there is an ongoing investigation. I don’t want to prejudge and perhaps, give the impression that I’m leading the investigators to a certain conclusion," President Aquino stressed. "Pero, I think, suffice to say, yesterday, in two of the broadsheets, nakita natin ‘yung pictures; the pictures themselves speak a lot. ‘Yung talagang literally---what is the phrase? 'A picture says a thousand words.' So may I invite you to look at yesterday’s pictures on the front page and the inside pages, medyo ‘yung idea nung checkpoint and the signages, etcetera, inconsistent between the photographs on the front page and inside (pages)," the President noted.

The President said he wanted the NBI to dig deeper into the new information presented by witnesses. "Subsequently, may mga iba pang impormasyon na dumating na parang inconsistent with the purported story. Gusto nating malaman ang katotohanan at maparusahan kung sino man ang mga may sala," he said. The President also stressed that he decided to task the NBI to solely investigate the incident to avoid the public perception of a whitewash. "PNP is competent to investigate. So para ma-preclude na merong bias, favoritism, factionalism, etcetera, ilagay na natin ’yung mas klarong independent agency," he said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=485809