PAO shows new witness in Carl, Kulot slay

Carl Angelo Arnaiz (Photo from his Facebook account)

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) presented on Monday a new witness to the murder of former University of the Philippines student Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 14-year old companion, Reynaldo “Kulot” De Guzman.

PAO Chief Persida Acosta said the new witness identified as Joel Cruz is an employee of the funeral service that picked up Arnaiz’s body from the crime scene.

“His testimony jived with the findings of our forensic team when it comes to the time of death of Carl,” Acosta told reporters.

Acosta was at the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the first hearing on the criminal complaint filed against Caloocan police officers and the cab driver implicated in the death of the teenagers.

Acosta said she will oppose taxi driver Tomas Bagcal’s bid to become a government witness.

“We’ve heard five versions of the story from him. In his first version, he said the robbers used a handgun and then it later became a knife. He also keeps on changing the actual time of the incident,” she stressed.

During Monday’s preliminary investigation, Bagcal and Police Officers 1 Ricky Arquilita and Jeffrey Perez appeared before the investigating panel chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Ma. Emilia Victorio and received copies of the complaint for double murder, torture and planting of evidence under Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act (Republic Act 10591) and Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act (Republic Act 9165) filed against them by the parents of Arnaiz and De Guzman.

They were given until October 19 to respond to the complaint via a counter-affidavit.

The DOJ panel also set the succeeding hearings on October 23 for the filing of reply, and October 26 for the filing of rejoinders by the parties.                  /kga