Carl Angelo Arnaiz (Photo from his Facebook account)
The University of the Philippines on Wednesday called for “immediate justice” for Carl Angelo Arnaiz, a former student of the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City, who was killed by Caloocan police officers last Aug. 18.
In a statement, the university also expressed concern for the “safety and welfare” of young Filipinos under the war on drugs of the Duterte administration.
It noted the suspiciously similar circumstances of the death of Arnaiz and of Kian Loyd delos Santos, a 17-year-old senior high school student at the Our Lady of Lourdes College in Valenzuela.
Both killings, which were only two days apart, happened in the hands of Caloocan City police officers.
“UP Diliman joins the family of Carl Angelo M. Arnaiz, a former UP Diliman student, in mourning his death,” read the statement from the office of UPD Chancellor Michael Tan.
It highlighted that Arnaiz was one of the 3,800 students who passed the “tough‘ UP College Admissions Test in 2014 and made it to the flagship campus. He studied interior design for a semester, before dropping out due to depression.
“But [he] was intent about returning to UP,” the statement said.
Caloocan police said Arnaiz was killed in a shootout, after he was tagged in a taxi robbery hours after he left his home in Cainta, Rizal.
But his family remained adamant that their son – a consistent honor student – could not have committed any crime.
An autopsy conducted on Arnaiz by a forensic team from the Public Attorney’s Office showed it was a case of “intentional killing,” as the teenager’s body reportedly showed signs of torture.
Reynaldo de Guzman, the 14-year-old student who was last seen with Arnaiz in Cainta, was found dead on Wednesday in Gapan, Nueva Ecija.
The fifth grade student had 30 stab wounds and his head was wrapped in packing tape. /atm