Noy in no hurry to read NBI report on Atimonan shooting

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has yet to act on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) report on the killing of 13 people in Atimonan, Quezon last Jan. 6.

In a recent interview, the President said he presently has his hands full, citing the appointments to the 15-man Transition Commission tasked to craft a measure that will be sent to Congress for the creation of a Bangsamoro region.

The President also noted that the NBI report, which was submitted to him last Thursday, is five inches thick and the report brief alone is 64 pages.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa and the Palace legal team were tasked to review the NBI report.

“The Office of the President would be part of the group that would be digesting the report,” said Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang.

“I hope you give us some time. This is a long investigation. It is a complicated case. And it’s better to fully digest all of the details before we begin to speak publicly about it,” Carandang earlier said.

Earlier reports, quoting unnamed sources, said the NBI recommended the filing of multiple murder charges against policemen and soldiers involved in the incident. 

The President had ordered the relief of Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent James Melad over a spate of violent incidents in his jurisdiction, including the Atimonan “shootout” and the killing of a suspected former gambling administrator, Fernando “Pandoy” Morales, a week after the Atimonan shooting.

Chief Superintendent Federico Castro Jr., deputy chief for operations of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the report of the fact-finding body led by Superintendent Keith Singian included affidavits of witnesses, like that of Morales’ family.

Castro, however, refused to reveal details of the report, leaving it up to Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima to officially announce the findings.

A ranking police official confirmed to The STAR that Singian’s committee report “points to the fact that Morales did not fire his gun.” Turn to Page 18  

Desk-bound Marantan

Meanwhile, PNP doctors advised Superintendent Hansel Marantan, the only police officer wounded in the Atimonan shooting, to do administrative jobs instead of actual police work in the field.

Chief Inspector Dorothy Baltazar of the PNP Health Service said the wound in Marantan’s left arm damaged the nerve in his forearm.

“With his damaged ulnar nerve, his agility will not be as good as before the injury,” said Baltazar in a briefing. “The nerve cannot regenerate.”

Baltazar said the damage was diagnosed after Marantan had an electromyogram nerve conduction velocity at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City as recommended by his attending physician Martin Sison.

She said Marantan will undergo another test after three weeks of therapy.

Chief Superintendent Ma. Angela Vidal, director of the PNP Health Service, earlier said doctors observed the slow healing of Marantan’s wounds on his left arm so they recommended further tests.

Vidal added that Marantan could not walk on his own and had to be assisted by his father due to the wounds in his legs. With Cecille Suerte Felipe