Jurisdiction issue: Slay case vs cops junked

Carl Angelo Arnaiz (Photo from his Facebook account)

A Caloocan regional trial court (RTC) has junked the murder charges against the policemen tagged in the killings of teenagers Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman so that the case could be transferred to the Navotas City RTC.

Caloocan RTC Branch 122 Judge Georgina Hidalgo on May 9 dismissed the charges against PO1 Jeffrey Perez and PO1 Ricky Arquilita at the behest of prosecutors but kept the charges of torture and planting of evidence in her court.

Location

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Xerxes Garcia told the Inquirer they asked the court for leave to withdraw the charges because a witness claimed that Carl’s murder took place in Navotas and not Caloocan.

“What we were after is to have the murder charges removed from the docket of the Caloocan court so it can be filed in the proper court,” he said.

In April, prosecutors asked Hidalgo to withdraw the murder charge because prosecution witness “Joe Daniels” testified that he saw Arnaiz being shot “on C-3 Road, corner Dalagang Bukid and Tanigue Streets” on March 2.

Upon conferring with the Navotas city assessor, prosecutors determined that the location was “within the territorial boundary of Navotas City.”

Citing the importance of venue in criminal cases, Hidalgo dismissed the charges without prejudice to the refiling of the charges in the proper court.

Garcia said the prosecutors did not mind if the judge opted to dismiss the charge instead of withdrawing the information because they “basically have the same effect.”

Police story

Perez and Arquilita were accused of killing Arnaiz, 19, and De Guzman, 14, in August last year.

They claimed that Arnaiz, a former University of the Philippines student, engaged them in a gunfight after robbing a taxi driver.

Arnaiz was found in a morgue 10 days later, while De Guzman was found with at least 30 stab wounds in a creek in Nueva Ecija province.