Filipino renegade cop found guilty of killing two teenagers in 2017

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Navotas City court convicted a policeman found guilty in the killing of teenagers Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo "Kulot" de Guzman in 2017 at the height of the previous administration’s drug war.

Judge Romana Lindayag-Del Rosario of the Navotas City Regional Trial Court Branch 287 said PO1 Jeffrey Sumbo Perez was "guilty beyond reasonable doubt" for the crime of murder in the deaths of Arnaiz and De Guzman who were 17 years old and 14 years old, respectively, when they were brutally murdered.

The decision was made on March 1, but was only made public on Monday.

The court ruled Perez would suffer reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole for both deaths.

He was likewise ordered to pay a total of P690,000 in damages to the families of the victims.

"The foregoing amounts shall earn legal interest of six percent (6%) per annum from the date of finality of this decision, until full payment," the document said.

Arnaiz was killed on Aug. 18, 2017 in an alleged shootout with police, after a taxi driver supposedly complained that he was held up by the former University of the Philippines student.

Then Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said Arnaiz fought with policemen during a legitimate operation, prompting them to retaliate.

Meanwhile, De Guzman, an alleged companion of Arnaiz, went missing for weeks until his body, which was stabbed 31 times, was found in a creek in Nueva Ecija.

A month after the deaths and a growing public outcry against the brutal slayings, former President Rodrigo Duterte said the killings of the teenagers were meant to sabotage the administration's anti-drug and anti-crime campaign.

In 2018, the Department of Justice filed murder charges against Caloocan cops allegedly involved in the deaths.