Roxas: Cops in Atimonan incident cooperative

MANILA, Philippines - Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas on Tuesday belied reports that the policemen involved in the Atimonan shootout have not been cooperative with the probe on the incident by the National Bureau of Investigations.

During the turnover of the voluminous fact-finding committee report of the Philippine National Police to the NBI, Roxas said the policemen have been very cooperative with the probe.

"Hindi totoo na hindi nakiki-cooperate... In fact, bukas pa sila kukuhanan ng statement sa opisina namin," Roxas told a media briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

He added that aside from the report, all the pieces of physical evidence, including the guns, slugs and the vehicles, gathered by police investigators would be turned over to the NBI.

For his part, PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima said the physical evidence gathered at the scene is very vital to the solution of the case.

NBI Director Nonatus Rojas said the physical evidence to be turned over to them by police investigators will be eventually compared to the ones collated by the NBI team.

Rojas said the NBI will only declare whether there was a shootout in the Atimonan incident or not when the probe is already done.

"Idedeclare na lang siguro pagkatapos," Rojas said, noting that reports that the incident was an ambush and there was no shootout were "premature." 

Aside from three officials, nine members of the PNP fact-finding committee faced members of the media.