Melad denies raps over Atimonan rubout

MANILA, Philippines - Former Region IV-A police director Chief Superintendent James Andres Melad appeared before the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday to refute the multiple murder charges filed against him and other police and military men for the killing of alleged jueteng operator Vic Siman and 12 others in Atimonan, Quezon last Jan. 6.

Melad submitted his counter-affidavit to the panel of prosecutors and insisted the incident was a legitimate operation sanctioned by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).

He said he approved the operation, but only on a “ministerial” basis.

Melad presented as witness Superintendent Glenn Dumlao, head of the regional public safety battalion of Region IV-A.

“We still maintain that ‘Coplan Armado’ was a legitimate operation. I maintain that General Melad signed the Coplan ministerial for soliciting funds from PAOCC,” Dumlao told reporters after the hearing.

Former Region IV-A deputy intelligence head Superintendent Hansel Marantan, leader of the team that conducted the operation, remains confined at the Philippine National Police General Hospital.

The DOJ panel chaired by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva said Marantan had submitted an answer, which they refused to furnish to reporters.

The 12 other police officers that took part in the operation – Senior Inspector John Paolo Carracedo, Senior Police Officer 1 Arturo Sarmiento, Superintendent Ramon Balauag, Senior Inspector Timoteo Orig, Chief Inspector Grant Gollod, Senior Police Officer 3 Joselito de Guzman, Senior Police Officer 1 Carlo Cataquiz, Police Officer 3 Eduardo Oronan, PO2 Nelson Indal, PO2 Al Bhazar Jailani, PO1 Wryan Sardea, and PO1 Rodel Talento – have also submitted their counter-affidavit.

Carracedo had asked the panel to end the preliminary investigation and transfer the case to the ombudsman, citing Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s alleged prejudgment of the case.

The DOJ panel denied his plea and instead directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and families of the victims to submit a reply to the answers of the respondents by April 29.

The police and military team and the seven officers of the PNP scene of the crime operatives who investigated the incident also submitted their respective counter-affidavits.

The parties were also given until May 8 to submit their rejoinders before the panel resolves the complaint.

The charges were filed last month after the NBI investigation, based on accounts of three eyewitnesses and physical and forensic evidence, showed that some of the victims were already lying on the ground, slumped on the seat of the car or ready to surrender but were still shot dead by operatives.   

Probers, who pointed to a supposed “jueteng turf war” as possible motive behind the killings, also cited proof of tampering of the crime scene.