Get rid of them
Tomas Bagcal, the taxi driver supposedly held up by Carl Angelo Arnaiz, appeared before the Senate and had yet another version of the events that led to the death of Arnaiz. I can no longer remember how many times he has given different versions of that fateful night. Now, he says that Carl Arnaiz's "younger companion" we can only assume that was Reynaldo de Guzman- was able to get out of his cab in the middle of the robbery, sat on a sidewalk and started screaming that only Carl was robbing the driver, and not him. In his earlier statements, Carl was supposedly alone.
Bagcal, along with a tricycle driver and barangay watchman, brought the two to the police station. According to Bagcal, he just wanted to turn over the two suspects to the police, but was prevented from leaving. A police officer then states that they just "get rid of them" while giving the known gesture of running a finger across the neck. Other details were also added by Bagcal, such as a certain police officer who asked to be called "Sir Lakay", being an Ilocano. After driving and stopping at different areas, they were accompanied by policemen on motorcycles. They then went to the place where Arnaiz was shot while kneeling and pleading for his life. Bagcal mentions that he feared he would be killed as well, since the police never even bothered to ask for his information details at the station. He was just asked to drive and accompany them.
I do not know whether or not the authorities would believe Bagcal's new statement, but a new witness who appeared before the Senate said that Arnaiz was kneeling when repeatedly shot by the police. There are discrepancies between the new witness and Bagcal's statements in terms of the time it happened, but what is evident is there was no shootout. Arnaiz did not fight back as is the routine police excuse, but rather killed while obviously helpless, and perhaps even innocent. If this is not an extrajudicial killing, I don't know what is.
A new angle is being looked into. According to Carl's mother, she sent him P17,000 a day before he supposedly committed the robbery. So why would he rob a cabbie if he already had money? The Public Attorney's Office is now considering that it was Carl Angelo Arnaiz who was robbed, and not the other way around. His backpack was practically empty. His laptop gone, his smartphone miraculously transformed into an analog phone and no trace of any money was found. It may have been more convenient to just "get rid of them" than process and charge them of whatever crime they supposedly committed, not to mention the police would be in the good graces of this administration for killing drug suspects, along with whatever perks they may enjoy. Whatever the real story behind the killing of Carl Angelo Arnaiz is, it is evident that the police did not act in a way that PNP chief Gen. Dela Rosa can be proud of.