A ranking official of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (Paocc) admitted the existence of “Coplan Armado” that covers the operation in the alleged shootout in Atimonan, Quezon, which resulted in the killing of 13 men, but the plan was never given the green light by the body.

Chief Supt. Reggie Villasanta, Paoccs executive director, quickly said that Coplan Armado was not approved by their agency tasked to formulate policies against organized crime.

“We received the proposal last November 2012 . . . After a week of deliberation . . . It was not approved,” Villasanta said at a hastily called press briefing in Camp Crame.

A newspaper report (not The Manila Times) on Friday said that the operation had been given the go signal by the Paocc.

But Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. denied approving the police operation that led to the deadly encounter.

The operations plan that was cited in a newspaper report “is confidential,” Ochoa said, adding that the newspaper report that the Paocc authorized the operation in Atimonan was “completely erroneous.”

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) initial report said on Friday that the fatalities aboard two SUVs in the Atimonan shootout did not fire their guns.

The bureau’s forensics team currently investigating the incident said that the two SUVs rattled by bullets showed downward bullet trajectory, which means that the bullets’ entry came from outside of the two vehicles, not from inside.

The report also said that the bullets’ exit points indicated that the passengers of the two SUVs did not fire from the inside. The report added that the holes found inside the vehicle were way too big for a primary bullet exit fired from inside.

NBI investigators also said that based on the blood splatter found inside the vehicle, high powered and high velocity guns were used against the passengers.

Villasanta said that the proposal submitted to their office contains information involving a list of personalities involved in illegal gambling, illegal drugs and gun for hire gang, with Vic Siman’s name in the list. Siman was one of the 13 fatalities in the Atimonan encounter.

“But the proposal was not seeking authority to operate . . . They were asking for support, they can operate without Paocc’s approval,” Villasanta said.

The official lamented exposing of Coplan Armado to the public, since it was considered confidential documents.