Ex-policeman in Carl Arnaiz, Kulot deaths gets reclusion perpetua

A former police officer has been convicted over the killings of teenagers Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo "Kulot" De Guzman in 2017.

In an 80-page decision, Navotas Regional Trial Court Judge Romana Lindayag Del Rosario sentenced Jeffrey Sumbo Perez to reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole for the death of Arnaiz, 19.

He was sentenced to suffer the same for the death of De Guzman, 14.

The court also ordered Perez to pay the following amounts to the victims’ kin:

• Arnaiz’s family: actual damages (P90,000); civil indemnity (P100,000); moral damages (P100,000); and exemplary damages (P100,000).
• De Guzman’s kin: civil indemnity (P100,000); moral damages (P100,000); and exemplary damages (P100,000).

Arnaiz was killed by Caloocan police officers on August 18, 2017, with authorities saying he had staged a hold-up against a taxi driver.

De Guzman, Arnaiz’s friend, was later found dead with 30 stab wounds on his body in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, his head wrapped in packaging tape.

Aside from Perez, another police officer was accused in connection with the killings, PO1 Ricky Arquilita. He died while in detention in April 2019.

The court dismissed the case against Arquilita following his demise "without prejudice to the resolution... on the issue of conspiracy between Accused Arquilita and Accused Perez."

The boys went missing two days after Kian Loyd Delos Santos, a 17-year-old student, was killed by Caloocan police officers in an anti-drug operation, and three days after dozens of people were killed in anti-drug operations in Bulacan in what was one of the bloodiest days of the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

The Caloocan Regional Trial Court in November 2022 found Perez guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the torture and planting of evidence on the two teenagers.

In a 36-page decision dated November 10, the Caloocan RTC Branch 122 meted the following sentence against Perez:

• For violation of Republic Act 9745 against Arnaiz, accused is hereby sentenced to suffer penalty of six months of arresto mayor as minimum to four years and two months of prision correccional medium as maximum;
• For violation of RA 9745, in relation to Section 5(a) of RA 8369 against De Guzman, accused is sentenced to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua;
• For the planting of evidence under RA 9165 against Arnaiz, Perez is sentenced to suffer the penalty of two terms of life imprisonment;
• For the planting of evidence under RA 10591 against Arnaiz, the accused is hereby sentenced to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua
• Perez is also perpetually disqualified from holding public office.

The court also ordered Perez to pay the heirs of Arnaiz and De Guzman moral damages amounting to P1 million and exemplary damages amounting to P1 million for each of the victim’s heirs. —NB/BM, GMA Integrated News