MANILA, Philippines – Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) finally got to controversial police Supt Hansel Marantan on Friday, January 18, at St Luke’s Hospital in Taguig, where they confiscated his gun and examined his wound.

Marantan, who is said to have been the leader of the checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon, where cops and soldiers killed 13 men, has refused to speak to investigators even from his own organization.

The NBI visit on Friday didn’t change his stand. Surrounded by his own security men, the police official refused to give the NBI an official statement of what transpired in the Atimonan incident that the department of justice is now calling a bloodbath.

Frederico Cistre of the NBI confirmed to reporters at St Luke’s that Marantan surrendered the gun that he claimed he used in the Atimoman shooting. Cistre said a medical examiner had also observed Marantan’s injuries, but denied to give details about either the gun or the wound.

“Our doctor coordinated with the attending physician of Supt Marantan,” he said.

Cistre said that while Marantan refused to speak, they are expecting a statement from him soon. “[There is] no specific date but they promised to cooperate with the submission of the affidavit,” he said.

Marantan, who has been relieved following the killings in Quezon, is the only police from the checkpoint who was injured in what was originally reported as a shootout. At the time, he was the deputy intelligence chief of the regional police in Southern Tagalog.

Initial investigations have revealed that the incident was more likely an ambush.

Other police officials have linked Marantan to a criminal gang, the rival gang of Victor “Vic” Siman who was killed in the incident. But Marantan has insisted that the checkpoint was an approved operation by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Committee that targeted criminal gang members, specifically Siman.

The PAOCC has denied Marantan’s claims. – Rappler.com