The PNP Internal Affairs Service recommends the dismissal from the service of the two Caloocan cops involved in the operation that killed Carl Arnaiz, and the demotion of the Caloocan City Police Community Precinct 2 chief
MANILA, Philippines – Caloocan cops “intentionally killed” 19-year-old Carl Arnaiz, an internal Philippine National Police (PNP) investigation into the controversial case showed.
Inspector General Alfegar Triambulo, chief of the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS), announced the finding of his probing team on Wednesday, November 23.
“The entry of the bullet and the position of the victim shows that he was intentionally killed,” Triambulo said in an interview on ABS-CBN News.
The findings of the PNP-IAS echoed the earlier findings of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), which was the first to flag down the teenager’s killing as deliberate.
Based on the findings, the PNP-IAS recommended the dismissal from the service of Police Officer Jeffrey Perez and Police Officer 1 Ricky Arquilita – the cops involved in the operation which killed Arnaiz. The PNP-IAS said they committed grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a police officer.
On top of the administrative cases, Perez and Arquilita are facing a double murder criminal complaint at the Department of Justice, also filed by PAO.
As for their Caloocan City Police Community Precinct 2 Commander Police Chief Inspector Fortunato Ecle Jr, the PNP-IAS recommended that he be demoted one rank for grave and less grave neglect of duty.
After it investigated Arnaiz’s crime scene two months ago, PAO said that the scene was “staged.”
Cops claimed that Arnaiz was killed in a shootout after they tried to arrest him after he robbed taxi driver Tomas Bagcal. Bagcal later said that he was forced to sign a false affidavit, and corroborated the PAO’s finding that Arnaiz was kneeling when he was shot by cops.
Arnaiz was last seen with 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman in Cainta, Rizal. A corpse of a teenager believed to belong to De Guzman was found in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, on September 5, or more than two weeks after Arnaiz was killed.
De Guzman’s parents have insisted that the corpse belongs to their son, but the PNP had said that the DNA test showed otherwise. – Rappler.com