Differences in the narration of cabbie Bagcal and Caloocan cops on deaths of Carl, Kulot

MANILA, Philippines — Nineteen-year old Carl Arnaiz and 14-year old Reynaldo "Kulot" De Guzman were believed to be together on the night they went missing on August 17.

Their bodies were found at two separate places, eleven days apart: Arnaiz was found by his parents at a funeral home in Caloocan City, while the body believed to be De Guzman was found floating at a creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija on September 6.

The parents of the two teenagers filed murder and torture raps against several members of the Caloocan police who responded to the said robbery complaint filed by cabbie Tomas Bagcal.

PO1 Jeffrey Perez and PO1 Ricky Arquilita, two of the policemen tagged in the case filed their counter-affidavits before the state prosecutors on Thursday. They insisted that it was a legitimate police operation and Arnaiz was killed for firing back at them.

Bagcal, for his part, also executed a testimony detailing how the early morning of August 18 transpired.

READ: 4 key details in cabbie's version leading to Carl Arnaiz's death

Here are three points where the two narrations differed:

How Arnaiz was found by police?

Perez and Arquilita said that they found Arnaiz while they were doing beat patrol along the stretch of C-3 Road, Caloocan City. "We alighted from our motorcycle and casually walked  towards the direction of that person, Mr. Bagcal who was also behind during the chase, shouted that the person in front of us was the person who robbed him, we shouted to the person to stop walking while we introduced as policemen."

But Bagcal, in his testimony dated September 29, said that he brought the two suspects to the police station:

How, where was Arnaiz shot?

The police said that they found Arnaiz walking along C-3 Road, Caloocan. They asked the teenager to stop, but he didn't, and instead fired at them: "[W]hile we were shouting to stop him from walking, as we covered behind the post of Meralco in the area, this person instead of stopping, faced us, drew his gun and started shooting at us, our instinct when he fired shots to him to in protecting our lives and in pursuance of our legitimate duty and after the exchanged fire shots we saw that this person fell down and slumped to the ground, we waited for a few seconds before we went to him, I (PO1 Perez) kicked the gun away from him and we felt that he was no longer moving."

But Bagcal said that he brought Arnaiz was fired at along the 5th Avenue by the police while the teenager was on his knees:

Where is De Guzman?

The two officers were named as respondents in the killing of De Guzman but did not mention his case at all. Arnaiz is believed to be De Guzman's last companion when the two teenagers went missing since the night of August 17.

But Bagcal said that he also brought De Guzman, along with Arnaiz, to the police station.

The Department of Justice will resume its preliminary investigation probe on October 26 for the filing of rejoinder affidavits of the complainants.