Marantan: Murder, conspiracy charges impossible

MANILA, Philippines - How could there be conspiracy when they don’t know each other?

Police Superintendent Hansel Marantan asked this question the other night as he rejected the charges of murder and conspiracy that are set to be filed against him and his men for the operation in Atimonan, Quezon that led to the killing of 13 people.

“That’s impossible. Hindi kami magkakakilala (we do not know each other),” he said.

In an interview with The STAR, Marantan said hours before the operation, he had been coordinating with some police units to deploy personnel to support a checkpoint.

He stressed that he did not personally know all the police and military personnel who took part in the operation.

According to Marantan, he had difficulty gathering forces since it was a Sunday and the Feast of Three Kings, and many policemen were on holiday break with their families.

He added the absence of many police officers prompted him to call for the military component led by Army Lt. Col. Monico Abang, who deployed 25 troops.

Marantan also pointed out that until the actual setting up of the checkpoint, the operatives had no idea of the mission.

“I do not know who are from the (Army’s) Special Forces. I do not even know the people from Atimonan police,” he said.

Marantan said he did not brief the operatives on the mission since the target, Vic Siman, might have an asset in the local police force.

Siman was among the 13 people killed in the incident that Marantan maintained was a shootout.

Marantan said he and his men are ready to defend themselves against accusations that they killed 13 people in cold blood.

Marantan maintained it was a legitimate police encounter, lamenting that some people have painted him as a monster for leading the joint police-military team.

Among those killed were a police superintendent, two other police officers, enlisted personnel and Siman, a businessman suspected to be involved in illegal gambling.

Marantan said he is expecting the worst as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) submitted its report to President Aquino belying earlier claims of a shootout.

“There were character assassinations against me. It seems they have some sort of a tally board scoring how many people I have killed. They counted about 48, I think. In effect, they painted me (as a) monster,” Marantan told The STAR from his hospital bed at the Philippine National Police (PNP) General Hospital at Camp Crame late Wednesday.

Marantan was the only member of the security team wounded in the incident.

He insisted the shootout broke out after one of the men in the two-vehicle convoy opened fire at the police and military team manning. 

Reports said the NBI has recommended the filing of multiple murder and conspiracy charges against police and military officers involved in the operation.

“If they say it was murder, so be it. We respect their finding but we maintain the position that it was a shootout. That is the truth and we will defend ourselves at the proper forum,” he said.

Marantan said they have cooperated in the investigation. 

“We have submitted our affidavits. If we do not believe in the investigation, then we should not have cooperated in the first place,” he said. 

Coplan

Marantan recalled instances from the time he started the “case operational plan” or coplan with the information on a certain criminal group.

Marantan said Siman, one of those killed in the Atimonan incident, is involved in illegal gambling activities in Southern Tagalog.

He said Siman was linked to a bloody bank robbery incident in Cabuyao, Laguna, where several people were killed in 2008.

“I operated (against) Siman not for bookies or  jueteng  but for things beyond jueteng– for gun-for-hire, carnapping, carjacking, bank robbery, highway robbery and pilferage,” Marantan said.

He said jueteng is not his priority mission since illegal gambling can be handled by the local police.

Marantan said he always prepares a coplan for all his activities as regional police intelligence director.

“I operate by virtue of a coplan, where I get my authority. I spend a lot of time studying the case. There must be a missing link on why the Kuratong Baleleng (robbery group) would go to Southern Tagalog, when they are from Ozamis, Pagadian, Cebu,” he said.