MANILA, Philippines --- Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, chairman of the Senate National Defense and Security Committee, yesterday said he does not buy the idea that the January 6 violent incident in Atimonan, Quezon, was a rubout.

Having been the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief during the abbreviated Estrada administration, Lacson said the wounds suffered by Superintendent Hansel Marantan were serious and not grazed wounds.

“At saka nag-match ang slug sa baril na nasa loob ng sasakyan. Kung ako ang tatanungin, I would not buy the idea na rubout ito,’’ he told Senate reporters in yesterday’s “Kapihan sa Senado.” (And the slug matched with the gun found inside one of the cars of the slain persons at the police checkpoint.)

Asked on NBI allegations that the weapons turned over by the police and the military personnel were not those actually used in the incident, Lacson said this has to be disproved by the policemen and military personnel.

They will have the opportunity to present their counter-evidence during the preliminary investigation and these have to be evaluated not only by the Department of Justice (DOJ) but also by the public at large if they are guilty or not, he added.

Lacson also said the decision by Malacañang to order the DOJ) to file criminal and administrative charges against the policemen and military personnel linked to the alleged “rubout” of 23 people in Atimonan is demoralizing to the police and the military sectors.

The position of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an agency under the DOJ, was that the incident was not a gunfight but a rubout.

The government now wants the filing of multiple murder against those involved led by Marantan, Chief Superintendent James Andres Melad, and others.

Asked if the DOJ probe would be fair and whether Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should inhibit herself from the case because the NBI is under the DOJ, Lacson said this does not follow but the ones to ask De Lima to inhibit should be the policemen and the military personnel linked to the case “because of perceived, rightly or wrongly, pre-judgment.”

Since he does not buy the NBI rubout findings, Lacson said he “feels for them (the policemen and military men involved).”