Minors held in rob-slay, drug sale

The police in two Metro Manila cities found themselves dealing with underage suspects — one tagged for robbery with homicide, and two others for drug peddling.

In Manila, a 16-year-old boy is now in detention after admitting that he killed a male call center agent who allegedly molested him.

The Manila Police District said the boy was arrested Saturday and confessed that he stabbed the victim to death in April at the latter’s condo residence in Sta. Ana.

“He touched me in my private parts. I told him to stop but he wouldn’t. He treated me like an animal,” the boy told Inquirer on Wednesday. He said he was “grossed out” by what was being done to him and just went for the knife he found in the condo unit.

“I’m really sorry,” said the boy.

He added that they became friends on Facebook but that the victim forced him into his condo unit after giving him money and treating him to meals.

The call center agent was last seen alive on April 26. It took five days before his body was found by a street sweeper who helped the victim’s  neighbors find the source of the foul odor inside their condo building.

The victim’s valuables — including his gadgets and cash — were missing, according to the officers who went to the crime scene.

Security cameras in the condo showed that the boy was the last person to be seen with the victim.

The MPD investigator on the case, SPO2 Jonathan Bautista, said the boy was tracked down by the police after two months in hiding in his mother’s Ilocos Sur hometown.

Bautista said the MPD was awaiting the court order on where the boy should be detained.

In Quezon City, the police arrested two teenagers for selling 5 kilos of dried marijuana leaves on Tuesday night.

The male suspects — aged 15 and 16 — sold the marijuana in an entrapment operation conducted by the Quezon City Police District’s Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) on King Charles Street, Barangay Bagbag, Novaliches.

The older boy admitted that he bought the dried marijuana leaves from Kalinga province for P75,000 and that he and his partner were planning to sell them for P300,000, said SP01 Erickson Isidro of  DEU.

The two minors were turned over to the QCPD’s Women and Children’s Protection Desk.

Under Republic Act No. 10630 which amended the 2006 Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, an offender aged above 15 years but below 18 at the time of the offense shall be exempted from criminal liability, unless he/she acted with discernment and therefore shall be subjected to diversion programs without undergoing court proceedings. —With a report from Inquirer Research