The initial reports said that 13 suspected criminals had been killed last Sunday in an encounter with a combined Philippine Army (PA) and Philippine National Police (PNP) group in Atimonan, Quezon.

Succeeding reports, however, began to indicate that there was more to the event than meets the eye. Families of the victims said that what occurred was a rubout and not a valid shootout between criminals, on one side, and law enforcers, on the other.

There was, to be sure, some evidence that what happened was not a Kuratong Baleleng style execution. For one, a police officer who was among those manning the checkpoint was shot and injured. But one of the most disturbing pieces of information to come out after the shooting was that three policemen and three soldiers were among the 13 alleged criminals slain that night. Yet another casualty was an environmentalist whom one Cabinet secretary vouched for.

In the days that followed, various sources said that what happened was really part of a turf war between rival syndicates operating the illegal numbers game jueteng. It is an open secret that jueteng lords are able to operate anywhere in the country if they have the protection of police and/or military officials.

Once a gambling lord has established his territory, he rakes in millions every day and must necessarily be generous with his largesse if he is to keep the tax-free funds flowing steadily. The jueteng lord can become a political kingpin himself, or choose to become a kingmaker, but only if the police and military officers in his area are under his payroll.

The corrupt cops and military men who receive regular payoffs have the choice of sharing their bounty with the officers and men under them, or keeping the loot for themselves.

It is not only difficult but unfair to second guess why three policemen and three soldiers were among the 13 fatalities of the Quezon encounter. But the fact of the matter is that they were there in the convoy, inside the two private vehicles that the combined PNP-PA team said shot it out with them.

This alone raises disturbing questions such as why these policemen and soldiers were with a group that has been identified as belonging to a known jueteng lord, and if they were serving as some form of security for the syndicate. More importantly, were their superiors aware that the cops and soldiers were in danger of being rubbed out when they were made part of that ill-fated convoy?
 
Investigation called for
Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales has already said that an investigation is called for. So has House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez. Most of all, the relatives, friends and fellow soldiers and policemen of the slain 13 need to know the truth. At the very least, according to Rosales, what happened was a case of overkill.

Thus far, it has not been made clear how many rounds the supposed group of criminals were able to get off before the team of police and military men opened fire on them. To kill all 13 passengers of two vehicles means that the shooting was not unlike the overpowering hail of bullets that killed the legendary American criminals Bonnie and Clyde.

To simply refer to them as “suspected criminals” does a disservice to the victims and their families. First and foremost, they were human beings who appeared to have been deprived of their human rights when they were not given any opportunity to surrender, or even explain themselves.

At the very least, logic tells us that the shootout did not occur in a level playing field. The PNP-PA team supposedly numbered 50, while they were facing 13 men in two vehicles. The PNP-PA team had both the tactical and strategic advantage. By their sheer numerical superiority, they could have surrounded the suspects and forced them to surrender even if the supposed criminals had fired first.

The PNP is now saying that they will conduct an investigation on the Quezon incident. This early, there is speculation that the most senior of the three slain policemen, Senior Superintendent Alfredo Consemino, was on the take, while the two others were merely his aides, who may not even have been part of the syndicate.

Unfortunately for them, dead men tell no tales. The side of PO1 Jeffrey Valdez and SPO1 Gruet Mantuano will never be heard. And neither will Tirso Lontok, an official of environment group Luntiang Alyansa sa Bundok Banahaw, have the chance to clear his name.

The three cops and one environmentalist were among the 13 who may not have been summarily executed, but who were certainly not given the opportunity to surrender.

CHR chief Rosales may have hit the nail on the head when she described what probably happened last Sunday evening in the coastal town of Atimonan as a case of overkill.

The final question that nags us is this: What if some—or even one—of the 13 passengers of the two vehicles were innocent? Are they now to be dismissed as nothing more than collateral damage?

Indeed, a full-blown, no-nonsense investigation is called for.