Court acquits 12 cops in Atimonan shootout
A Manila court has cleared Davao City Police Col. Hansel Marantan and 11 other police officers of multiple murder charges over their involvement in the controversial operation in Atimonan, Quezon, that left 13 people dead in 2013.
In her decision promulgated on June 23, Presiding Judge Teresa Patrimonio-Soriaso of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 27 acquitted the accused on the grounds “of the justifying circumstance of fulfillment of duty.”
Patrimonio-Soriaso said the danger to the lives of the police officers and soldiers during the shooting incident was “actual and imminent” so the force used to counter the aggression from the victims was “reasonable.”
She noted that Marantan was seriously injured in the shooting, an offensive act that showed an intent to cause injury and therefore, an “unlawful aggression.”
“In the face of actual and imminent danger to their lives and limbs, with the information that the occupants of the Montero SUVs (sport utility vehicles) were fully armed, the policemen and soldiers acted swiftly,” the judge said.
‘Reasonable force’
“The force used to overcome the unlawful aggression was reasonable,” she added.
Acquitted along with Marantan were police officers Ramon Balauag, Grant Gollod, John Paolo Carracedo, Timoteo Orig, Joselito de Guzman, Carlo Cataquiz, Arturo Sarmiento, Eduardo Oronan, Nelson Indal, Wryan Sardea and Rodel Talento.
“The bail bonds posted by each of the accused for their provisional liberty are ordered canceled and released,” the court said.
On the other hand, the case against another police officer identified as Bhazar Jailani was archived pending his arrest.
The 13 police officers, who were then assigned to the Police Regional Office 4-A, were charged in March 2013 with multiple murder for the killing of suspected gambling lord Vic Siman and his 12 other companions in a shootout on Jan. 6, 2013.
Marantan, at that time the deputy intelligence chief of the PRO 4-A, was the team leader of a joint police and military team manning a checkpoint along the Maharlika Highway in Atimonan.
Army officers said two SUVs carrying Siman and his companions tried to smash through the checkpoint, triggering a firefight that supposedly lasted 18 minutes.
The Philippine National Police defended the operation, saying it was legitimate. Marantan also claimed the slain suspects were members of a gambling and gun-for-hire syndicate.
However, the National Bureau of Investigation said its probe revealed that what happened was a “rubout,” since the victims had no opportunity to fire back.
According to the NBI, the target of the operation was Siman while the others who were killed were “just with the wrong company, at the wrong time and in the wrong place.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, dismissed the complaints against former Calabarzon police chief Supt. James Andres Melad and 11 other soldiers due to lack of evidence.
In indicting Marantan and the 12 police officers, the DOJ said the evidence showed that all of them, except for Melad, fired on Siman and his group.
In April 2014, all policemen charged by the NBI, except Melad, were ordered dismissed by the PNP for their involvement in the shootout.
Marantan and 10 of his coaccused were granted bail by the court in March 2017. He and several others were also reinstated in the PNP after the National Police Commission appellate board granted their appeals. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
