MANILA – (UPDATE2, 4:01 P.M.) The Caloocan City policemen accused of killing defenseless schoolboy Kian Lloyd delos Santos on Tuesday repeatedly refused to answer questions from senators about how they handled the 17-year-old after dragging him away during an anti-drug operation in August. And later in the same hearing, superiors of another set of Caloocan cops who had gunned down UP student Carl Arnaiz – for supposedly robbing at gunpoint a taxi driver – also treaded cautiously in responding to senators’ questions, saying it’s up to the courts to ferret out the truth.
At the continuation of hearings by the Public Order committee, Sen. Risa Hontiveros tried to get PO3 Arnel Oares, PO1 Jeremias Pereda, and PO1 Jerwin Cruz to validate the version of an eyewitness that the Delos Santos, then being tightly held by two cops, was repeatedly shot by a third policeman from behind. However, Oares, who was pointed to by witness “MC” as the one she saw shooting delos Santos, refused to answer on grounds of self-incrimination. The two others also refused to answer the senator’s questions.
Charges have been filed against the policemen and two of their superiors after CCTV footage, forensic findings of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and the PNP contradicted claims of the arresting cops that Kian had shot at them while they were trying to collar him during a “one time, big-time” sweep of drug suspects in the boy’s Caloocan neighborhood on the night of August 17.
Saying he did not mean to prejudge the case against the three policemen, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, committee chairman, addressed a question to the PNP-IAS and PNP chief Gen. Ronald dela Rosa. He asked them what is the “long-term solution” to ending an apparent string of executions of suspects, including those of delos Santos and Arnaiz, whose family filed murder charges last Monday also against Caloocan policemen with the help of the Public Attorney’s Office.
Arnaiz, a UP student on leave and former honor student at the Makati Science High School, went missing on the night of August 16. He had just gone out to buy midnight snacks near their house in Cainta, along with a 14-year-old neighbor. He was found 10 days later in a Caloocan morgue, with the cops claiming he was arrested for robbing a taxi driver in Caloocan and then fighting the arresting officers. However, PAO said forensics findings showed Arnaiz’s body bore torture marks and he was apparently shot dead in a defenseless position. The family found incredible the claim that the teenager, who just had a sling bag with him when he left home, would go all the way to Caloocan to rob a taxi driver.
The 14-year-old boy with Carl, Reynaldo de Guzman, remains missing.
Carl’s mother, like that of Kian, is also an Overseas Filipino Worker – Kian’s mother works in Saudi Arabia, and Carl’s mother, in Dubai.
PATTERN OF RETICENCE
The pattern of reticence among the Caloocan cops continued in Tuesday’s Senate inquiry when it was the turn of Minority Leader Franklin Drilon to pose questions.
Drilon asked Oares, Cruz and Pereda where they were on the night of August 16, 2017 (when Kian was killed), and all replied they were in PCP (Police Community Precinct) 7, in Sta. Quiteria.
But when Drilon asked specifically, “At 8:45pm, where were you?” the three cops invoked their right against self-incrimination.
Drilon pressed on, “Why invoke?” and the policemen replied, “Charges were already filed against us.”
When Drilon asked “where were you on August 16 close to midnight? Were you at home?” the cops again declined to answer.
The PCP commander, Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo, was also tight-lipped at first when Drilon asked if the Caloocan Police has a logbook, so Drilon turned to NCRPO chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde: “Is there a logbook in Caloocan police station where these gentlemen were assigned, for August 16, 2017?”
Albayalde obliged and read out the blotter of August 17, entry No. 2628, regarding a “shooting encounter involving PNP personnel against Kian Lloyd delos Santos. Time and date of occurrence, on or about 8:45, along Block 7, Riverside Libis, Bgay Baesa, Caloocan.”
When Drilon asked Cerillo who are the “10 involved” operatives appearing on his records, Cerillo again stonewalled: “It was already submitted to the IAS [Internal Affairs Service],” adding, “Sir, as of now, I invoke my right against self-incrimination.”
Drilon pressed on, “All that we’re asking for is the report you submitted to IAS, naming the 10 who were in the incident….What is self-incrimination there? We’re just asking for the record.”
Cerillo thus named all the lawmen involved in that night’s mission: PO3 Oares, PO2 Reynaldo Tanblanco, PO1 Jerwin Cruz, PO1 Jeremiah Pereda, PO1 Ceferino Paculan, PO1 Erwin Romeroso, and PO1 Ferdinand Claro.
Also included, but not present in the operations, were: PO2 Arnel Caniesares, PO2 Johnny Corpuz, PO2 Fernan Cano, PO1 Silverio Garcia, PO1 Ronald Herrera, and PO1 Meldon Yague.
Drilon asked, “How many actually joined the operations?” and Cerillo named Oares, Tanblanco, Cruz, Pereda, Paculan, Romeroso and Claro.
CARL ARNAIZ CASE: WHERE’S TAXI DRIVER?
Meanwhile, senators’ efforts to draw more information about the killing of Arnaiz and his alleged “crime” of robbing a taxi driver at dawn of August 18 was likewise stalled by the failure of the police to bring along the taxi driver, who had issued two affidavits.
The Caloocan police’s version of the Arnaiz killing had drawn skepticism from senators and various rights groups, who found it hard to believe a UP student and valedictorian of Makati Science High School would go all the way to Navotas and Caloocan from his Cainta neighborhood past midnight to rob a taxi driver. Carl’s relatives swear he did not have a gun, nor would have been inclined to use one.
At Tuesday’s hearing NCRPO chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde read aloud for Sen. Grace Poe – vice chair of the Senate committee – a portion of the police report on what happened to Carl. Gen. Albayalde noted, however, the report does not reflect “the activity of Carl coming from Cainta in Rizal” to the supposed area where he committed a crime.
Albayalde said: “What the spot report says is of the incident that transpired during that early morning of Aug. 18. It says here that about 3:30 am of Aug. 18, 2017, suspect who posed as a passenger in Navotas City and asked the victim, who is the taxi driver here, to convey him at 5th Avenue in Caloocan City. However, when they reached C-3, Road 3, Brgy. 28, Caloocan City, suspect drew his gun and declared a heist, with intent to gain, took the wallet of the victim and hit the latter using his gun, then alighted thereat. At this juncture, the victim immediately sought assistance when he chanced upon PCP2 personnel of Caloocan City who were then conducting patrol in the area. The responders here are PO1 Perez and PO1 Arquilita. Immediately, said police personnel and the victim rushed at the place of occurrence where the victim was able to identify the suspect. At this juncture, responding police personnel identified themselves as law enforcers, however, suspect drew his firearm and successively fired shots toward the responding police officers.”
Senator Poe grilled the police officer who took down the statement of Tomas Marleo Bagcal, the taxi driver who claimed to have been robbed, why key information was missing from Bagcal’s affidavit. The police officer, PO2 Rodolfo Bautista, said: “in the first three hours he [driver] was shaken.” Bautista was asked by Poe why his report did not indicate if he checked the license of the driver-complainant, the plate number of taxi and franchise papers, and the officer replied this was indicated in the affidavit of the arresting officer.
“Nakatuon kasi kami dun sa hold-up [We were all focused on the robbery incident]…” he told Poe, who praised his candor in admitting his shortcomings as an investigating officer.
When Poe asked how Bagcal was able to come back to the station with a second affidavit, Bautista replied, “We asked for help from PO1 Perez to contact the taxi driver,” prompting the senator to lament how one of the police officers involved in killing Carl Arnaiz (PO1 Perez) was the only one who could communicate with the driver-complainant.
“Yung kasangkot na officer [the officer involved here], siya [lang] yung may contact sa taxi driver,” Poe said.
As for taxi driver Bagcal’s two affidavits, Albayalde gave Senator Poe this explanation: “I believe he made a supplementary statement affidavit after the victim or Arnaiz was identified, and I think according to the arresting or responding officers, the taxi driver positively identified Carl Arnaiz as the person who made that robbery holdup.”
Albayalde said Arnaiz was in a police-accredited morgue for 10 days “because nobody [could] identify Carl Arnaiz during that time, so he was brought to that funeral parlor. Only after 10 days when the relatives were looking for a missing person.”
Poe referred once more to the police spot report, that said Arnaiz’s body was found in a dark area in C-3 Road in Caloocan, “so ibig sabihin po ba, kailan po ba nagkaroon ng barilan at napatay siya? [so, does that mean the shooting and Carl’s death happened on] August 18?” To which, Albayalde replied, “Yes, your honor.”
Albayalde said Arnaiz’s body was brought to the morgue right “after the SOCO investigated the crime scene.”