THE Justice department has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the possibility that the spate of killings of teenagers was part of a grand plot to sabotage the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the NBI would focus on this angle in its ongoing investigations on the killings of Kian Loyd delos Santos, 17; Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 19; and Reynaldo de Guzman also known as “Kulot,” 14.
“We have to determine if there are other motives other than killing of these teenagers because we can see a trend that is targeting teenagers. This has not happened before when the war on drugs started,” Aguirre said in an interview.
The DoJ chief agreed with the observation of President Rodrigo Duterte that there seemed to be a deliberate effort to sabotage and discredit the war on drugs.
“This appears to me as an effort to ultimately destroy our police force and of course the President,” he said.
Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Rueda-Acosta, who is providing legal assistance to the parents of the three slain teenagers, also shared the view of Aguirre.
“It’s obvious already that there’s an agenda in these killings. They are sacrificing teenagers to pursue their agenda. How could they stand doing that?” Acosta said.
In a speech last Friday, Duterte hinted that the spate of killings of Delos Santos, Arnaiz and De Guzman was meant to sabotage the Philippine National Police and its war on drugs.
The President also ordered the PNP leadership to investigate who could be behind such plot, which he attributed to narco-politicians and drug lords.
Aguirre announced that the parents of Carl have been placed under the coverage of the witness protection program.
The parents of Kian have already been provisionally covered by the WPP earlier while Aguire has also offered protection for the parents of De Guzman.
Acosta said her office is readying murder and torture charges against Caloocan policemen behind the killings of Carl and Kulot, who were together when they went missing last Aug.17 reportedly after being arrested for robbing a taxi driver.
The PAO chief bared that they were able to find a key witness to support the criminal complaint.
“This witness gave us very important information on what really happened to Carl and Kulot. So together with the testimonial evidence and physical evidence like forensic tests, we find basis to pursue murder and torture charges against these policemen,” she said.
De Guzman and Arnaiz were last seen together on the night of Aug. 17 while buying snacks in a convenience store near their residences in Cainta, Rizal.
Arnaiz was found dead with five gunshot wounds and bruises in Caloocan 10 days after they went missing, while De Guzman’s body, on the other hand, was found in Nueva Ecija with 30 stab wounds and his head wrapped in packaging tape last week.
Kian, on the other hand, was killed by police during an anti-narcotics operations in Caloocan City on Aug.16.
Earlier, the parents of Kian filed murder and torture charges before the DoJ against four Caloocan policemen involved in his killing—Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo, Police Officer 3 Arnel Oares and Police Officers 1 Jeremiah Pereda and Jerwin Cruz of Caloocan City police station 7.
The DoJ panel of prosecutors has already summoned the policemen and set preliminary investigation hearings on Sept. 14 and 21.
Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday urged policemen “not to let rogue cops ruin the Philippine National Police’s reputation.”
She called on members of the PNP to uphold the integrity of their institution amid controversies.
She also said she still believes there are more policemen “intent on fulfilling their duties.”
“We believe there are more good cops [than bad ones]. I call on them to save the institution,” she said.
Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, meanwhile, called on PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa to issue a clear and unequivocal directive to the police force not to kill unarmed suspects and to stop the indiscriminate killing of minors.
“A clear, definitive directive from the top which says that killing a suspect who did not put up a fight is wrong, that is important for the police,” said Aquino after a hearing of the committee on public order on the killing of Delos Santos. With Rio N. Araja and Macon Ramos-Araneta