Marantan's Last Shot

Hansel Marantan
Corrupt cop who last shot FX at arm's length

Let me remind you who Hansel Marantan is and what he did to FX.  This is not an assumption or a speculation.  This was proven by an unexpected video recorded by a UNTV cameraman of the Ortigas Rubout of 2005. 

After the police (dressed in civilian clothes, some in slippers, some armed with military-grade firearms, all of them driving in unmarked vehicles) had wrapped their targeted sedan with bullets, they approached the sedan on foot, fired another round at its passengers, then planted guns and stolen license plates in the trunk to create false evidence to match their story to the public.  Unlike the other shootout incidents they've claimed, this one would not fool the Filipinos because, unbeknownst to the cops, a camera caught them in the act of their corruption.

Hansel Marantan was the guy who approached the passenger-side backdoor and found FX tightly crouched on the floor, behind the passenger front seat.  Marantan saw FX was still and obviously hurt from the gunshots fired.  Instead of checking to see if FX was still alive, so the cops can later question him, Hansel Marantan shot FX at close range to kill him.  Marantan fired the last shots to make sure everyone in the car was dead. 

It was obvious that Marantan had no intention to arrest but to kill.  Who gave him this order?  Who gave him the confidence that he wouldn't suffer the consequence for this murder and injustice?  Who gave him a promotion for being a corrupt cop?  Who else are his victims?  Who is he kidding?!


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Today from "The Manila Times":
http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/top-stories/38950-from-valle-verde-boys-to-atimonan-13-death-hounds-marantan



From Valle Verde Boys To Atimonan 13: Death Hounds Marantan Written by Belly Otordoz, Catherine S. Valente, Anthony Vargas, Jefferson Antiporda And William B. Depasupil

On November 7, 2005, Francis Xavier Manzano, Anton Cu-Unjieng and Brian Anthony Dulay—members of the so-called Valle Verde Boys—were killed in an alleged shootout when they refused to
stop at a checkpoint laid out by members of the Philippine National Police-Traffic Management Group, led by a young officer named Senior Insp. Hansel Marantan.

The suspects were in a maroon Nissan Exalta in Ortigas District in Pasig City when they were waylaid by Marantan’s group. An alert UNTV crew took footages of the incident and showed them on national television.

The images of the already dead suspects being shot at repeatedly by the policemen prompted their relatives to declare a rubout.

Marantan and his boys were charged with three counts of homicide by the Office of the Ombudsman but the families petitioned the Supreme Court to elevate the crime to multiple murder.

Last week, Marantan, who has been promoted to superintendent, found himself in a similar predicament at a checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon where 13 men—including a policeman of equal rank and four other law enforcers—died. Marantan was shot at least twice.

Bloody trail
The Valle Verde Boys and the “Atimonan 13” were among the many victims of shootouts where Marantan was involved.

Reports said that Marantan had killed at least 34 people in less than a decade.

Marantan, who is still recuperating at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City for his wounds, had established a pattern in getting himself involved in shootouts.

On February 8, 2010 when he was the group commander of 415th Provincial Police Mobile Group based in Barangay Taguan in Candelaria, Quezon, eight suspected members of a kidnap group were killed along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay Bukal Sur.

It was practically the same story: the suspects did not stop when flagged down and opened fire on the police, forcing them to retaliate, killing all the passengers of the Toyota Hi-Ace van.

The slain men had allegedly conducted illegal activities in Pampanga province and also ignored the first police checkpoint in Barangay Lalig in Tiaong, Quezon.
On April 18, 2012, four suspected car thieves were killed in what the authorities said was a shootout with policemen conducting a checkpoint on the Maharlika Highway diversion road. Senior Supt.

Valeriano de Leon, Quezon police director, said that three of the still unidentified men died on the
spot, while the fourth was declared dead on arrival at a hospital.

The four were on a red Toyota Innova without license plates that drove through the checkpoint barrier and signage in Barangay Gulang Gulang at about 2:20 a.m. The vehicle was traveling south.
The operation was conducted under the supervision of Supt. Ramon Balauag, then the chief of police of Lucena City. However, the operation was said to have been based on information from Marantan.

Balauag, now the chief of the Intelligence Section of the Quezon Provincial Police Office, worked with Marantan in the Atimonan shootout.

On November 12, 2012 in Calamba, policemen killed six suspected criminals, believed to be also involved in the ambush-slay of a police officer the previous month.

The fatalities had been under police surveillance based on reports that they were behind a series of hijacking and robberies in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region.

Senior Supt. Fausto Manzanilla, Laguna police director, said that the six were guns-for-hire.

Manzanilla said that six were on board a bronze Toyota Innova van, while two were on a blue pick-up truck.

The lawmen flagged down the Innova at about 8:30 a.m. in Barangay Lecheria but its passengers opened fire, Manzanilla said. An exchange of gunfire ensued, he added.

All the men in the Innova van were killed. Marantan at that time was the intelligence chief of PNP-Calabarzon.

No whitewash
On Tuesday, Malacañang pledged that there will be no whitewash in the ongoing investigation being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on the Quezon shootout.

Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that President was intently monitoring the investigation.

Although the President did not specify a timetable as to when the investigation should be concluded,
Lacierda said that Mr. Aquino wants a full and exhaustive investigation into the incident.

Laciera added that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has also directed the NBI Death Investigation Division to conduct a parallel probe.

Of the 13 killed in the shootout, three were police personnel: Police Supt. Alfredo Perez Consemino of Purok 3 EM’s Barrio Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba City; Police Officer 1 Jeffrey Valdez of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro province, and Senior Police Officer 1 Gruet Mantuano of Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro province, and one was a soldier, Staff Sergeant Armando Lescano, of 407 Lt. Ano Street, Fernando Air Base, Lipa City.

Five were identified as residents of Barangay Maunong, Calamba City: Leonardo Marasigan, Conrado Decillo, Victorino Atienza Jr., Jerry Siman and Victor Siman.

Three others were Tirso Lontoc Jr. of Barangay Sta. Lucia in Dolores, Quezon; Jimbeam Dyico Justiniani of Quezon City and Paul Arcedillo Quiohilag of Biñan, Laguna.

Police sources said that another slain suspect used two names through the identity cards bearing one Victor Gonzales of Candaba, Pampanga and Maximo Pelayo of Tigaon, Camarines Sur.

Legitimate
Despite claims of a rubout, Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr., PNP spokesman, maintained that the shootout was a legitimate operation by police units in the area.

“The instruction was to be thorough and proper in the investigation and we also want to find out if there had been any breach of procedure or if there were criminal acts committed in the encounter,” Cerbo said. “We have to establish whether there was a rub-out or a shoot-out . . . what we know at the moment that the fact that there were at least 13 people were killed and one was wounded.”

Nevertheless, the PNP spokesman said that the task of the fact-finding team created was to find out if the rules of engagement in encounter and checkpoints were followed and if the incident has links with jueteng dispute in the area.

Benefit of the doubt
Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson came to the defense of the police officers who took part on the firefight.

Lacson appealed to the public and media to give the police officers all the benefit of the doubt and just wait for the result of the ongoing investigations being conducted by different government agencies.

“As far as I know, the Atimonan incident was a long running intelligence project of PRO 4-A [Police Region Office IV-A], which involved human as well as signal or technical intelligence among other operational efforts,” Lacson told reporters.

Senate probe
Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd expressed willingness to conduct a separate investigation on the incident in case the agencies tasked to conduct the probe will not be able to come up with a satisfying result.

 He, however, made it clear that he will leave the investigation to the National Police, the Investigation bureau, as well as the Commission on Human Rights.

“If they won’t do it or don’t do a serious investigation, then I’ll be forced to ask the Senate to investigate this incident,” Pimentel said.

Hands-off
The Armed Forces of the Philippines, meanwhile, has kept a hands-off policy on the controversial alleged shootout.

Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., military spokesman on Tuesday also denied reports that one of the fatalities was a member of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp).

Burgos said that the Isafp card recovered from one of the victims was fake because the military unit has long stopped issuing identification cards to its agents.

A Hope that is fleeting, a Hope that is fleeing

BELOW IS THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT RELEASED BY THE MANZANO FAMILY

-- 5 November 2007; The City of Manila.

A Hope that is fleeting, a Hope that is fleeing

Statement of the Manzano Family
in remembrance of Francis Xavier V. Manzano
on his Second Death Anniversary

On November 7, 2005, our family lost a brother when Francis Xavier V. Manzano—FX to us--was killed in cold blood by elements of the Traffic Management Group (TMG). Almost immediately after, the TMG elements and the top echelon of the Philippine National Police (PNP) tried to justify his death officially by painting him and his companions Anton Cu-Unjieng and Brian Dulay in the worst possible light. They claimed they were carnappers, even as they were never charged in court.

None of the government agencies, save for one, lifted a finger to go beyond the official pronouncement of the PNP. Only the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) dared to contradict the almost formula findings of the PNP and TMG. In its unanimous report, the CHR courageously told us—Francis’s grieving family—what we had suspected all along: he and his companions were killed in cold blood, using disproportionate and, in fact, overwhelming force. The CHR’s findings were borne out by the raw footage of UNTV, which captured the entire incident as it happened. The CHR’s findings were also based on scientific evidence painstakingly preserved and secured by Dr. Raquel Del Rosario-Fortun, an independent consultant engaged by the CHR.

Because of this report, we, Francis’s family, dared to hope. We dared to hope that, finally, the truth, as found by the CHR, would find its way into prosecution on those responsible and meting out penalties on those who would be found liable by a court of law. We dared to hope, despite all our personal misgivings and a sense of collective pessimism, that the Ombudsman, the government agency vested with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the police elements who killed Francis and his companions, would prove worthy of our hope, if not our trust.

It was because of that hope that we finally decided to formally cooperate with the Ombudsman. It was because of that hope that we dared to speak out in public and ask that the Ombudsman perform its foresworn duty. It was because of that hope that we sought an audience with the Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, to try to bring to her attention our desperate cry for justice. It was because of that hope that we took her word for it when she told us on July 25, 2006, that she would help us.

It is almost two years since FX was killed in cold blood and it has been more than one year since the meeting with the Ombudsman. Despite the utter simplicity of the issues presented by this case, the Ombudsman has yet to file charges against those responsible for the killing of our brother.

Not one policeman who fired a shot has been disciplined administratively. Not one policeman who participated in the killing has been suspended preventively. Not one policeman has been placed on notice that the killings of November 7, 2005 were anything but regular.

Instead, they continue to roam the streets, armed. Some of the officers involved have even been promoted and transferred to other posts.

Madam Ombudsman, when we met with you, you assured us of your help. We were of the impression that you understood what was going on. We were of the impression that you were aware that three (3) people were killed—without any of them having fired a shot. We were of the impression that you had some clue that an overwhelming number of policemen with an overwhelming use of force had converged on a narrow street on November 7, 2005 to kill three civilians. We were of the impression that you knew what was going on.

Madam Ombudsman, we do not want to think that we were wrong. We do not want to think you are unaware of what is going on. But how else can we explain the long delay in the resolution of the investigation, the apparent unwillingness to act on a clear case of extrajudicial killings by policemen, the inaction by your Office? How else indeed, unless we are to think that while you are indeed aware of what is going on, you do not care at all.

Madam Ombudsman, worse than allowing the killing of FX to remain unpunished would be to allow our hope to vanish.

We ask you now, Madam Ombudsman, prove us wrong.

Show us that you not only know what is going on, but that you also care.

Show us that we were not wrong to hope, even if fleetingly, that those who commit such heinous crimes will be held accountable.

Show us that we may still hope for some measure of justice in this country.

Today, we, FX’s family, remember him on the second year of his passing. We thank all of you, the responsible members of media, who have accompanied us in our journey to seek justice for him and for Anton Cu-Unjieng. We thank all those who have supported us in many different ways. We ask you all to continue to pray for FX and Anton. We ask you also to pray with us for our country—that a day will come soon when widowed and orphaned families may no longer need to raise their cries for justice to the heavens because justice on earth would have been done.

BELOW IS THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT RELEASED BY THE CU-UNJIENG FAMILY

On November 7, 2005 three young men—Anton Cu-Unjieng,

Francis Xavier Manzano and Bryan Anthony Dulay--were gunned down by a team of policemen in front of the AIC Gold Tower Building at the corner of Garnet and Ortigas Streets, Pasig City. After the incident, the policemen immediately claimed self-defense. They had no choice but to shoot, they said, because the young men were armed and fired at them first.

What they did not know at the time was that the killings were caught on videotape by television outfit whose office was just meters away from the crime scene। The videotape debunked the lawmen’s claim of a shootout। It showed, at close range and in graphic detail, how the policemen mercilessly executed the defenseless young men, and how they tampered with the crime scene afterward to make it appear as if the victims were killed in a legitimate police encounter.

The broadcasting of the videotape over national television caused a public clamor for the Government to look deeper into the matter. And yet, despite the presence of a “smoking gun” in the form of the videotape, and in spite of the fact that the authorities knew the identities of the lawmen involved, no government official or agency took any steps whatsoever to suspend, relieve, investigate, prosecute or punish the perpetrators.

The only government body that took action on the case was the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). With commendable zeal and dispatch, the CHR—ably assisted by Dr. Raquel Fortun, the country’s top forensic expert—thoroughly investigated the case and found ten police officers liable for arbitrary deprivation of life: P/SInsp. Hansel M. Marantan, P/SInsp. Samson B. Belmonte, PO3 Rizalito SM Ramos, Jr., PO3 Lloyd F. Soria, PO2 Dexter M. Bernadas, P/SInsp. Henry R. Cerdon, PO2 Jesus S. Fermin, PO2 Sonny R. Robrigado, PO2 Fernando Rey S. Gapuz, and PO1 Josil Rey I. Luceña, all from the Traffic Management Group, Philippine National Police.

The CHR, however, could not prosecute the offenders because it is not legally empowered to do so. Accordingly, the CHR forwarded its findings to Ombudswoman Merceditas Gutierrez, who assured us, when we visited her in July of last year, that her office would give the case its prompt and proper attention.

Since then, the Ombudswoman’s office has done absolutely nothing.

We cannot help but question why the Ombudswoman’s office, after 17 months, has not even started conducting a preliminary investigation of the case. We question why no one has been charged, relieved, suspended or prosecuted when the evidence is not just compelling but overwhelming and the lawmen’s identities and whereabouts are known.

But our biggest question of all is, for how long will the case remain in limbo, at the mercy of the Ombudswoman?

We cry for justice for our loved one, Anton Cu-Unjieng and all other victims of extrajudicial killings.

We condemn not only the lawmen who take the law into their own hands, but the government officials and agencies who coddle and shield them from prosecution and punishment.

We call upon the Government to make a serious and concerted effort to stop extrajudicial killings, cleanse the ranks of the PNP, and punish all State agents who take the law into their own hands.

Finally, we call upon Ombudswoman Gutierrez to utilize the full extent of her powers and resources to vigorously prosecute not only Anton’s case but all cases of extrajudicial killings perpetrated by government officials.

Done this 5th day of November, 2007, in the City of Manila, Philippines.

Mrs. Carmencita Cu-Unjieng Mrs. Monique Cu-Unjieng LaO’