Cop probing teen’s slay admits violating PNP rules

MANILA, Phlippines — The lead investigator in the killing of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz admitted that he failed to follow standard police operational procedure while handling the case.

In Monday’s hearing on the murder case, Police Master Sgt. Noel Bollosa, a defense witness, said that he himself asked Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) to process the crime scene.

Bollosa, who used to be with the Caloocan police, told Judge Romana Maria Melchora Lindayag del Rosario of the Navotas Regional Trial Court Branch 287 that he was informed about a “shooting encounter” on C3 Road in Caloocan City on Aug. 18, 2017.

According to police operational procedures, the investigator should request the chief of police to send the Soco team.

Bollosa, however, said he was not aware of that rule, reasoning out to defense lawyer Dodjie Encinas that on that day, he was handling five to six “drug-related” cases.

“It’s a big deal, not following [protocol]. It fosters the fact that there was ‘hocus pocus’ that happened,” State Prosecutor Xerxes Garcia said after the hearing.

When asked by Garcia what other cases he was handling the night Arnaiz was killed, Bollosa said that he could not remember since all his records were lost in a fire.

Recurring answer

This was his recurring answer throughout the hearing. He could not recall either the name of Tomas Bagcal, a taxi driver who claimed that Arnaiz and his companion, 14-year-old Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman, had tried to rob him. Bagcal, however, later retracted his testimony.

Bollosa also could not recall the names of the policemen who first responded to the incident or who picked up Arnaiz’s supposed firearm.

Two Caloocan policemen, Patrolmen Jeffrey Perez and Ricky Arquilita, are accused of killing Arnaiz.