Ejercito: ‘Slow death’ of 14-year-old De Guzman ‘very sickening’

MORGUE SCENE Eduardo Gabriel finds his son, Reynaldo de Guzman, 14, the missing companion of slain Carl Arnaiz, at a morgue in Gapan City Nueva Ecija.—ARMAND GALANG

Senator JV Ejercito joined many senators in condemning the brutal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy who accompanied 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz moments before the latter allegedly died in a shootout with cops.

He described the death of Reynaldo de Guzman, who was found dead in Gapan, Nueva Ecija with 30 stab wounds, as “very sickening.”

“I am numbed by the cold-blooded murder of Reynaldo de Guzman. Inflicting thirty stab wounds that led to a slow death for the 14-year old kid is VERY SICKENING!” Ejercito said in a statement on Thursday.

The senator called for an end to the killings of minors, three of which happened consecutively in the same month.

“Three consecutive killings of minors in a few weeks time and obviously through execution-style is ENOUGH! We will not allow the war against illegal drugs be exploited by butchers and monsters. We will not allow these culprits to be left unpunished!” Ejercito said.

Two days before Arnaiz and De Guzman were reported missing in Caloocan City, another teenage student Kian Delos Santos, 17, died in an anti-drug operation in the same city. Police claim both Arnaiz and Delos Santos fought back at the operatives, prompting them to open fire.

Like his colleagues in the Senate, Ejercito said the Philippine National Police should reevaluate its deadly drug war.

“I reiterate that the war on drugs strategy, Oplan Double Barrel, needs to be re-evaluated. We cannot win the war if bodies continue to pile up compared to the lives being changed through rehabilitation,” he said.

Ejercito assured that there will be no sacred cows in the investigation of the drug war deaths.

“In the Senate, we will ensure that the truth will not be silenced,” he said.

The Senate committee on public order, chaired by Senator Panfilo Lacson, will resume its next inquiry on the killings in the government’s drug war on Tuesday, Sept. 12. je

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