Kulot's parents reject CIDG's request for body, another DNA test

Despite DNA test result showing the body found in a creek in Nueva Ecija last week was not that of 14-year-old Reynaldo "Kulot" de Guzman, his parents have refused to yield the cadaver to the police for further investigation.

A report by GMA News' Saleema Refran on 24 Oras on Tuesday said Eduardo and Lina Gabriel rejected the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group's request to claim the body for further examination.

Mr. Gabriel also refused to do another DNA test and instead presented the death certificate from the National Bureau of Investigation's Medico-Legal Division as proof of the identity of the body currently laid out in Cainta, Rizal.

"Anak ko talaga 'yan. Hindi ko ho aangkinin 'yan. Anak ko talaga 'yan. Ako nagpalaki diyan," he said, adding that the marks on the body prove that it is his son's.

"Lahat ng palatandaan nandyan. Anak ko 'yan," Mr. Gabriel said.

Chief Inspector Rex Villaruel, head of CIDG-National Capital Region, said they went to De Guzman's wake not to claim his body but to ensure the family's receipt of their letter-request.

"Nagpunta po ako dito kanina, kausap ko 'yung mga anak niyo regarding sa letter na pinapadala para sa inyo. Lilinawin ko lang po ma'am, wala po kaming kinukuhang bangkay," Villaruel told Reynaldo's parents as shown in the report.

The Gabriel couple said they would push through with the burial of the body on Wednesday morning at the Pasig Public Cemetery despite the CIDG's request and the results of the DNA test.

An earlier report by Ivan Mayrina showed the couple enraged at CIDG officials showing up at the wake while they were having lunch with lawyer Persida Acosta, head of the Public Attorney's Office, which is helping the couple.

Reynaldo was the companion of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz on the night the two went missing on August 18. Arnaiz was later found in a morgue in Caloocan City.

Police claimed Arnaiz, an honor student, was killed when he resisted arrest after robbing a taxi driver, although the driver would later on claim that he brought Arnaiz alive to the police station.

The body found at the creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, last week bore over 20 stab wounds with its head wrapped in packaging tape. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News