Cop gets life for torture of UP student
THE Caloocan City Regional Trial Court has convicted a police officer for torture and for planting evidence on two teenagers who were eventually killed during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs in 2017.
In a 36-page decision, Judge Rodrigo F. Pascua Jr. of RTC Branch 122 found Police Officer 1 (PO1) Jeffrey S. Perez guilty for the torture of University of the Philippines student Carl Angelo M. Arnaiz and his companion Reynaldo de Guzman.
Specifically, Perez was found guilty for two counts of violation of Section 4 and 14 of Republic Act No. 9745, the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 and two counts of planting of evidence under RA 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
He was sentenced to reclusion perpetua for the torture of De Guzman, and a maximum imprisonment of four years for planting of evidence on Arnaiz.
The court likewise ordered Perez to pay the heirs of Arnaiz and De Guzman moral damages amounting to P1 million and exemplary damages amounting to P1 million.
The murder cases involving the deaths of Arnaiz and de Guzman are still pending before a Navotas court.
The death of Arnaiz, a 19-year-old former UP student, and the gruesome murder of De Guzman, whose body was fished out of a creek in Nueve Ecija province, had sparked widespread condemnation on the bloody war on drugs.
The killings happened barely two weeks after 17-year-old Kian Lloyd delos Santos was shot dead during a supposed anti-drug operation also in Caloocan City.
