It is troubling enough that Philippine Army soldiers had to deploy in support of police forces on January 6th, that dreadful day in Atimonan, Quezon. It is more disturbing that elite Special Forces troops, 25 or so of them, had to be in that checkpoint and get entangled in what is now coming out to be an intended ambush that resulted in a massacre of 13 - including soldiers and policement themselves who may never could have foreseen they would suffer such a fate while just "moonlighting" in some obscure security consulting job our there in Bicol.
What brought the soldiers there? Today, AFP top brass now say the elite troops could have been duped into thinking there was a real enemy out there, armed and extremely dangerous, so that they had to deploy a lieutenant colonel as team leader. They say the soldiers got the request to join the checkpoint mission 30 minutes before deployment. Well, if they deployed on such short notice, special forces at that, there must have been very compelling reasons to do so. And the AFP brass cannot wash their hands of responsibility in this dastardly act.
From what I've known through years of covering the news, special forces don't just deploy anywhere. They're really that "special" that you can't just nudge them with your elbow and say, "hey, I need you here, guys..." and they follow you right there. No! You'll have to make a formal request if you're not army or armed forces, a request that goes through channels, really tight channels. And then whoever gets your request has got to a go-signal from higher up, before it can even be relayed to whatever operating unit is available.
Did Supt. Marantan take this route? Or did someone else higher up did the coordination with the army?
Marantan, I learned, took army special forces schooling out there at Fort Magsaysay. Now I don't know how close he was to the other colonel, LTC Abang of the army, who led the army counterpart team at the checkpoint. Marantan also took his intel schooling with the navy, and, I was told, performed well in his class. Bet he had brave classmates there that now are just waiting for a nudge so they could get in on any action Marantan dips his finger into.
Wait a minute. Naval intel? Wasn't naval intel also at that Paranaque operation in 2008 where Marantan's team killed 16 people, including 53-year-old Alfonso de Vera, a vacationing seaman, and his seven-year-old daughter Lia Allana who just happened to live close by and just went out to fetch Lia's mother in Pasay?
These links of Marantan and the special forces and naval intelligence should be looked into, if the NBI really is serious about getting at the truth, not only about Atimonan but also about the other incidents where Marantan's names cropped up. And there were many.
There will surely be repercussions from this Atimonan incident - not only on the PNP but the armed forces as well. But the damage has been done. If you were special forces or anything of that sort, you know you'll have a hard time convincing anyone, especially civilians, that your ilk really does protect and serve the people, after that Atimonan incident.
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