MANILA, Philippines – Initial physical examination of the body of 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, who was last seen with UP student Carl Arnaiz before Caloocan policemen killed Arnaiz for supposedly fighting arrest after robbing a taxi driver, indicated that de Guzman was only recently killed.
This, according to Supt. Peter Madria, police chief of Gapan City in Nueva Ecija, where the body of de Guzman was found Wednesday (Sept. 6). De Guzman had been missing since he and Arnaiz were last seen together past midnight of August 18.
Based on the examination of de Guzman’s body, “hindi pa rin po matagal na patay ang bangkay [he had not been dead for long],” Madria said in a telephone interview by CNN Philippines.
Madria said the boy’s body bore “31 stab wounds” in all.
Madria was interviewed just after the father of de Guzman positively identified the boy – face covered with masking tape and wearing only a red orange shorts with the word “Batman” – as his missing son.
According to Madria, Gapan police investigators are still checking out how de Guzman, a resident of Cainta, Rizal, ended up in Nueva Ecija – floating at the Kabayo Creek, Tuesday morning.
Just 24 hours before the discovery of de Guzman’s body, the news of Carl Arnaiz’s killing in the hands of Caloocan police broke in the news. Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Atty. Persida Acosta said they were helping Carl’s family file charges against the Caloocan cops who shot him dead and claimed he had robbed a taxi driver, Tomas Bagcal.
Carl’s family had disputed the claim that the 19-year-old UP student, with a 14-year-old neighbor in tow, would go all the way to Caloocan to rob at gunpoint a taxi driver. They said he had just stepped out to buy midnight snack and only brought a sling bag.
The family searched for him for 10 days, only to find him in a morgue, and be told by cops that their son was a crime suspect they had shot dead for fighting them.
De Guzman, however, remained missing and his case was mentioned at Tuesday’s marathon Senate hearing on the killings of Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old schoolboy also killed by Caloocan cops, and Carl Arnaiz.
