JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday assured the public that the two policemen indicted for killing teenagers Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman, will be prosecuted, even though state prosecutors failed to file the case befor the appropriate court.
Guevarra said he would order the assigned state prosecutors to update him on the case after Judge Georgina Hidalgo of the Caloocan City Regional Trial Court, Branch 122, raised the issue of jurisdiction during the resumption of the trial of accused Police Officers 1 Ricky Arquilita and Jeffrey Perez on Tuesday.
“Any dismissal based on lack of territorial jurisdiction is without prejudice to the refiling of the case before the proper court,” Guevarra said, in a text message.
The handling Department of Justice prosecutors earlier admitted the error after they asked Hidalgo to let them file the murder charge against Arquilita and Perez in Navotas City.
A witness, Joe Daniels, earlier claimed that Arnaiz was actually killed in Navotas, not in Caloocan as what previously reported.
The separate case for torture and planting of evidence against the two policemen may still be handled by Hidalgo since the offenses were allegedly committed in Caloocan.
“It’s just a territorial jurisdiction issue that does not affect the merits of the case. In any event, I will look into the matter more closely,” the DoJ chief said.
The killing of Arnaiz, a 19-year-old former student of the University of the Philippines, and the murder of De Guzman, whose body was found in a creek in Nueva Ecija province, in August last year triggered widespread condemnation of President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
The killings happened barely two weeks after 17-year-old Kian Lloyd delos Santos was slain by policemen during a supposed anti-drug operation also in Caloocan City.
Meanwhile, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the government’s list of drug suspects should be released so that those on it will have a chance to clear their names.
He added that it would be fairer to all concerned to release the list than have it used by unscrupulous people to extort those who are listed. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara added that if the list is released, it should state that the findings are preliminary and not conclusive, especially if no cases have yet been filed.