FILE PHOTO: Pictures placed over the casket of 19 year old Carl Angelo Arnaiz, a teenager accused of robbery, who was shot dead by police, in Pateros, September 4, 2017. Dondi Tawatao, Reuters

MANILA - Justice, not technicality, should prevail in the trial of 2 policemen accused of murdering teenagers Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman, the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) said Wednesday as a jurisdiction issue marred the case.

A witness last week testified that police officers shot and killed Arnaiz in Navotas, not Caloocan City, where his body was found.

Arguing that the witness' claim means the Caloocan Regional Trial Court has no jurisdiction over the case, a panel of Department of Justice prosecutors then filed a motion to withdraw the 2 counts of murder filed against Police Officers 1 Jeffrey Perez and Ricky Arquilita.



PAO chief Atty. Persida Acosta said the case should not be dismissed because Navotas and Caloocan can both be deemed as crime scenes, making it possible for courts in either city to take cognizance of the trial.

"Technicality must not prevail over justice," she told DZMM.

"Alangan namang i-penalize mo ang taong bayan, the people of the Philippines [na tumatayong complainant], dahil lang sa dala-dalawang lugar ang ginagamit, magka-boundary pa, para lamang guluhin ang imbestigasyon," she added.

(Technicality must not prevail over justice. You shouldn't penalize the public, the people of the Philippines, who serve as complainants, just because the suspects used 2 crimes scenes, which share a boundary, just to muddle the investigation.)

The prosecution is not withdrawing the charges of torture and planting of evidence from the Caloocan court.

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Arnaiz, 19, and De Guzman, 14, went missing last year. Arnaiz's body, bearing signs of torture, was found in a morgue, while De Guzman's was found on in Nueva Ecija with 26 stab wounds.

Policemen Perez and Arquilita admitted to killing Arnaiz, but claimed that the teenager robbed a taxi driver and fired at them first.

They did not address the killing of De Guzman during the preliminary investigation.

But the taxi driver that Arnaiz supposedly robbed, Tomas Marleo Bagcal, said the officers instructed him to follow a certain "script" and that there was no shootout.

The teenagers' killing, alongside that of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, a resident of Caloocan, sparked nationwide outcry over alleged police abuses in the conduct of President Duterte’s war on drugs and spurred the sacking of the entire Caloocan police force.