Slain teen’s kin prefer NBI probe

The parents of Michael Angelo Remecio want the National Bureau of Investigation to also look into the murder of their son, citing their distrust of the police, Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said on Sunday.

The death of the 16-year-old boy has again placed the Caloocan police force in a bad light following the deaths of three teenagers under suspicious circumstances one after the other: Kian Loyd delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman.

According to Acosta, she has already asked Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to issue a department order directing the NBI to conduct its own probe of the boy’s death.

“The Remecio family is crying for justice and they trust the NBI better than the police in investigating and resolving [their son’s death],” she said.

Remecio, whose decomposing body was recovered by scavengers in a stream in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan, on Sept. 13, was buried on Sunday after his body was autopsied by members of the PAO forensic team.

Acosta said the forensics experts helped the boy’s mother, Genevie, and his father, Dionisio, identify their son as the state of the body made it hard to make out identifying marks or features.

“Based on our forensics report, the parents positively identified the cadaver as that of their son because he had a previous appendectomy and an injury on the left elbow,” she added.

Remecio was last seen alive when he left their house in Barangay 176, Caloocan City on the night of Aug. 25. He told his mother he would drive a tricycle to earn some money.

The police had said the teenager’s death might be linked to the illegal drug trade or a possible “love triangle.”

Earlier, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) relieved the entire Caloocan police force following the deaths of Delos Santos, Arnaiz, De Guzman and the conduct of an illegal house raid on Sept. 7.

Just last month, the NCRPO named the city police force the best in Metro Manila.