DOJ files murder raps vs. cops in Kian killing

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday filed criminal complaints against four individuals, including three policemen, in connection with the killing of student Kian Loyd Delos Santos in August last year.

Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan Jr. said the three-man panel of prosecutors found probable cause to indict Police Officer 3 Arnel Oares, Police Officers 1 Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz, and police asset Renato Perez Loveras alias Nono/Nonong before the Caloocan City Regional Trial Court.

Oares, Pereda, Cruz and Loveras are facing cases for murder and planting of evidence under Section 29 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and Section 38 of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.

The DOJ also found basis to file a case for violation of domicile under Article 128 of the Revised Penal Code against Pereda and Cruz while it dismissed the torture complaint against Oares, Pereda, Cruz and Loveras for lack of probable cause.

The prosecutors also junked the criminal complaints against 13 other policemen including former Caloocan City Police Community Precinct 7 commander Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo.

The DOJ said the 13 cops were not at the crime scene when Delos Santos was being pursued on August 16 last year by the group of Oares on suspicion of being a drug runner.

"Stress is taken that there is no evidence that the Philippine National Police has adopted a policy of summary execution of persons involved in drugs. Neither was it established that PCI Cerillo, on his own, gave instructions, express or implied, to his subordinate policemen to kill any drug suspects," stated the November 10, 2017 resolution on the complaints separately filed by Delos Santos' parents and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

"No convincing evidence was presented to show how these other 12 respondents (policemen) conspired to commit the crime/s. Neither do the undersigned investigating prosecutors find credible proof that links or gives unifying purpose to the principal respondents' individual acts," it added.

Delos Santos died in one of the bloodiest weeks in the government's war on illegal drugs with the Caloocan policemen claiming he was a drug runner who opened fire on them to evade arrest near Tullahan River in Barangay 160, Caloocan.

CCTV footage and accounts of witnesses appear to contradict the cops' claims, sparking public outrage over the campaign against illegal drugs, which has already claimed thousands of lives since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in June last year.

"Aside from their [Oares, Pereda and Cruz] admission as the ones being seen on the CCTV footage, PO3 Oares also acknowledged that he was the one who shot Kian although he insists that the killing was a consequence of his act of self-defense," the resolution stated.

"Unfortunately, and as stated, said three respondents' theory was effectively and persuasively overthrown by testimonies of credible witnesses and other evidence demonstrating the fact that they act in concert in order to achieve a common design, that is, to kill the minor victim, Kian Delos Santos."

According to the DOJ, there is absence of gunpowder nitrates on Kian's hands and that he was shot at the back of his head with the trajectory of the bullets "clearly indicating" that the gunner "was standing at the left side as he fired shots at Kian, who was then ducking face down."

The DOJ also said the gun found on the teenager's left hand was planted since he was actually right-handed.

It was also impossible for Delos Santos to keep sachets of shabu because he was only wearing boxer shorts with apparently no pockets.

The department said the plastic sachets were "purposely planted" by Oares' group "in order to justify their operation or commission of a crime." — KBK/RSJ, GMA News