DOJ team to visit rubout site anew

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to conduct another ocular inspection in Atimonan, Quezon at the site where police and military operatives killed 13 people at a road checkpoint last Jan. 6.

Assistant State Prosecutor Hazel Decena-Valdez said they would conduct the inspection on May 16 as part of the DOJ’s preliminary investigation into the multiple murder charges filed against Superintendent Hansel Marantan and other police officers.

“We decided to conduct our own inspection of the site so we can have our own appreciation of the evidence,” Valdez said.

She said the move is an initiative of the prosecution panel chaired by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva.

Valdez also revealed their panel has granted the bid of the victims’ relatives to verify the evidence submitted by Army Special Forces operatives who supported Marantan and his team.

The DOJ panel ordered the forensic examination of the digital camera that took photographs before, during and after the incident, which reportedly disproved several claims of the National Bureau of Investigation’s witnesses.

Elmer Train, legal counsel of the military respondents, earlier submitted the photos to the panel, saying these would prove the supposed cover-up by police operatives in the operations.

One of the photos taken at the site showed a man in a red shirt, holding a short firearm aiming upwards. This supposedly established the soldiers’ claim that the policemen fired the victims’ firearms to make it appear it was a legitimate shootout.

The DOJ filed charges of murder against the policemen involved in the killing led by Marantan and his immediate superior, former Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent James Andres Melad.

Marantan and Melad both denied the multiple murder charges filed against them in their respective counter-affidavits before the DOJ panel.