MANILA, Philippines – The family of slain teenager Carl Angelo Arnaiz has been admitted into the government’s Witness Protection Program (WPP), the Department of Justice (DOJ)  announced on Tuesday, September 5.

Their admission into the program is provisional pending the signing of a memorandum of agreement to formalize the arrangement.

Justice Undersecretary Erickson Balmes said Tomas Bagcal, the cab driver who supposedly pointed to Arnaiz as his robber, has not applied for admission into the WPP.

Bagcal had signed two affidavits detailing the events of the evening of August 18, when Arnaiz was killed after allegedly engaging the Caloocan cops in a shootout after he tried to flee arrest. Bagcal supposedly pointed to Arnaiz as the person who robbed him earlier that night.

But his affidavits had contradictions. The first one, signed on August 18, has Bagcal saying he doesn’t remember what his robber looks like. In the 2nd one, signed on August 29 after the teen’s parents found their dead son in the morgue, Bagcal suddenly describes the robber in some detail. (READ: Carl Arnaiz another Kian delos Santos? Nope, says Dela Rosa)

Bagcal may be invited to the next Senate bearing on the death of teenager Kian delos Santos, which is also tackling the case of Arnaiz. Both cases involve Caloocan policemen.  (READ: Kian and Carl: Parallelism in the deaths of two boys)

The autopsy of the Public Attorneys Office showed that Arnaiz was handcuffed, beaten up, and then dragged before he was fatally shot 5 times, most of them in the chest.

On Tuesday, the police’s crime lab officer affirmed there were 5 gunshots on Arnaiz.  Police Chief Inspector Jocelyn Cruz of the Northern Police Crime Lab said that based on her “professional opinion,” Arnaiz had difficulty fighting back. 

Arnaiz was laid to rest at the San Roque Cemetery in Pateros on Tuesday. – Rappler.com