DOJ forms panel to probe raps vs. cops in Kian delos Santos slay

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has formed the panel of prosecutors that will look into the criminal complaints filed against policemen implicated in the killing of teenage student Kian Loyd Delos Santos.

Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Severino Gaña Jr., officer-in-charge at the Office of the Prosecutor General, designated on Tuesday Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Tofel Austria, Assistant State Prosecutor Amanda Garcia and Associate Prosecution Attorney Moises Acayan as members of the panel.

Facing complaints for murder are relieved Caloocan City police station 7 head Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo, and the three cops involved in the operation, PO3 Arnel Oares, PO1 Jerwin Cruz, and PO1 Jeremias Pereda.

Oares, Cruz and Pereda were also charged with torture.

The complaints filed by Delos Santos' parents will undergo preliminary investigation where the respondents will be given a chance to air their side which the prosecutors have to take into account on deciding whether to dismiss the complaints or press charges in court.

Policemen said that they killed Delos Santos during an anti-illegal drugs operation on August 16 in Barangay 160, Caloocan City after the teenager fired at them as he was escaping.

Delos Santos' family claimed that a CCTV camera footage would prove that the teenager could not have run away as he was being dragged away by policemen after his apprehension.

Police claim Delos Santos was a drug runner and that his father and uncles were into the illegal drug trade, an accusation that has since been denied by his family. —NB/KVD, GMA News