Carl Angelo Arnaiz, the 19-year-old student from Cainta who went missing and later found dead in Caloocan City, was finally laid to rest on Tuesday.
Dozens of Arnaiz’s family, friends, and supporters joined the motorcade from his residence in Cainta, Rizal to Aliw Cemetery in Pateros for his funeral.
A highly emotional funeral mass was held in Mater Dolorosa Church in East Rembo, Makati City before he was buried.
Arnaiz, who was studying interior design at the University of the Philippines, went missing on August 18 after going out for midnight snacks with a 14-year-old friend identified as Reynaldo de Guzman. De Guzman remains missing as of posting time.
Family members found Arnaiz 10 days later, or on August 28, at a morgue in Caloocan City. He was killed after allegedly fighting it out with responding policemen.
The Caloocan City police claimed that Arnaiz flagged down a taxi in Navotas City and mugged the driver upon reaching C-3 road in Caloocan City.
The police recovered from Arnaiz a .38-caliber gun, marijuana leaves, and sachets of suspected crystal meth (shabu) inside his bag.
However, the autopsy report by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) indicated that Arnaiz’s body showed signs of torture before getting killed.
The report said two of Arnaiz’s wounds in the chest showed he was kneeling before he was shot, and that the rest of the shots were fired while he was on the ground.
Arnaiz’s death came two days after the killing of Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old student whose death has become the subject of a Senate inquiry.
Delos Santos’ demise has sparked public outrage and has put the spotlight on the Duterte administration’s violent crackdown against illegal drugs. kga