THE group of Supt. Hansel Marantan used at least three “hot cars” when he mounted the controversial police operation last week that left 13 suspected criminals dead at a checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon.

Sources said that Marantan and members of his team were on board a Toyota Adventure, a Nissan XTrail and a Toyota Innova when they went to a sparsely populated area in Atimonan where they hastily established a checkpoint. The Manila Times learned that the three vehicles have previously been reported stolen but were recovered by authorities.

“This is among the initial findings of the fact-finding team sent to investigate the incident,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

It was not yet known who owned the vehicles.

Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd on Wednesday relieved all of the police officers involved in the shooting, saying that they violated operational procedures.

“The role of the PNP [Philippine National Police] in this matter is purely as a fact-finding body and to determine the administrative liabilities of those who were involved. The criminal investigation will be handled by the National Bureau of Investigation [NBI] and we will give them our full support,” Roxas said.

President Benigno Aquino 3rd earlier said that the Investigation bureau will be the sole official investigating body that will look into the incident.

Among those ordered relieved were senior supt. Valeriano de Leon, Quezon provincial police director, the chief of police of Atimonan town, Maranta and 15 members of the intelligence unit under him.

The relieved officers were recalled to the police body headquarters in Camp Crame, where they will be held in restricted custody. The noncommissioned officers will be held in Camp Vicente Lim in Canlubang, Laguna.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s fact-finding investigation, led by Chief Supt.
Federico Castro, established that of the 13 men who were killed in the incident, eight were positive for gunpowder burns. However, investigators said that this alone would not be enough basis to say that the fatalities fired guns.

Roxas also said that of the 14 guns recovered from the cars of the slain men, 13 were licensed, but only seven were covered by permits to carry.

“Hindi biro ang insidenteng ito. Mayroon kang 13 kalalakihan na puro armado. Hindi naman siguro sila manonood lang ng sine. Aalamin natin ang buong katotohanan dito at tinitiyak kong hindi magkakaroon ng whitewash at takipan [This incident is no joke. 13 men were armed. I suppose they were not on their way to watch a movie. We will unravel the truth and I assure you that there will be no cover-up],” Roxas said.

Director General Alan Purisima, police body chief said that the policemen involved in the incident, particularly those who set up the checkpoint, violated basic procedures because there were no checkpoint signs and no marked police vehicle was in the vicinity.

He added that only one uniformed policeman, the chief of police of Atimonan, was manning the checkpoint, while the rest, including the intelligence team under Marantan were in civilian clothes.

Juicy posts
The Manila Times’ source also disclosed that despite the slew of cases leveled against Marantan, the official managed to get “juicy” posts in the region because of his closeness to Chief Supt. Abner Dimabuyo, the deputy regional director for administration in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) area.

Following his sacking as chief of the 415th Quezon Police Mobile Group in Candelaria town in 2012, many in the local police force raised eyebrows when Marantan was assigned in the regional police office’s intelligence section.

“His [Marantan] latest assignment was with the help of General Dimabuyo,” the source told the Times.

In November 2011, Marantan was relieved as the commanding officer of the police mobile group after he got himself entangled in a human rights case involving a certain Dante Magan, a water delivery boy whom he arrested.

Magan was allegedly taken into custody without any complaint or warrant of arrest. Marantan’s men reportedly tortured Magan while in detention.

The Times ran a series about the case and this prompted the Commission on Human Rights in Region IV to intervene and secure Magan’s freedom.

Administrative cases were filed against Marantan and his men over the incident.

Despite this, Marantan, who has been involved in a series of deadly shootouts that claimed the lives of at least 34 people in the past seven years, was appointed by Dimabuyo as chief of the Intelligence Section of the Philippine National Police Regional Office 4 in Canlubang, Laguna.

The assignment further authorized Marantan to conduct checkpoints anywhere in the region, a privilege he used in going after suspected criminals and engaging them in shootouts.