PAO questions DNA testing on Reynaldo

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) questioned on Monday the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) conduct of a DNA analysis on 14-year-old Reynaldo De Guzman.

PAO chief Persida Rueda Acosta asserted that Reynaldo’s parents have sufficiently identified the marks on their son’s body— a surgical scar on the neck and a wart on the knee.

“The parents found identifiers on his body—the surgical scar and the wart. Of course, they are parents so they know,” Acosta said.

“There is no issue on the identity of the body because it was positively identified by the parents,” she also said.

Earlier on Monday, the PNP announced in a press conference that the DNA testing they conducted on the body found floating on a river in Gapan, Nueva Ecija indicated that it was not that of De Guzman’s.

READ: Body found in Nueva Ecija not 14-yr-old Reynaldo De Guzman — PNP

PNP Deputy Director Gen. Fernando Mendez said the body found in the creek “cannot be the biological offspring” of De Guzman’s parents, Eduardo Gabriel and Lina de Guzman, because DNA samples did not match.

Apart from his parents, Reynaldo’s older brother also identified the short pants the dead boy was wearing, saying it was his gift to his little brother.

Acosta also stressed that after their comparative analysis of De Guzman’s face based on his pictures and that of the body found in Nueva Ecija, they have confirmed that both referred to the same person.

The PAO Chief questioned the need for a DNA test. She also asked why the PNP did not conduct a similar examination on teenagers Kian Delos Santos and Carl Arnaiz.

DNA test, she added is reliable if the specimen is safe but “when the specimen has been contaminated, the findings don’t match up.”

Acosta likewise dismissed the possibility that De Guzman was an adopted child, which supposedly supports the differing DNA test results.

“Anak talaga nilang dalawa kaya nga naaasar sila. Kasi mukha pa lang ng patay ay si Kulot na yun sabi nila tapos hindi naman lumobo o nag decompose ang mukha at katawan,” she pointed out./kga