Eleazar urges witnesses to shed light on death of young boy, drug suspect in Laguna
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar encouraged the families of a 16-year-old and of drug suspect Antonio Castillo Dalit to disclose what they know to investigators on the police operation in Biñan City in which the two were killed.
Eleazar also called on other witnesses to provide statements.
The PNP Internal Affairs Service was tasked to probe the incident that happened last June 16, to determine if the policemen followed procedures.
“We are urging the families of (the 16-year-old) and Antonio Dalit and those who witnessed the incident to provide their statements to the PNP Internal Affairs Service as their narrations could help shed light on the incident,” Eleazar said.
Eleazar assured protection for witnesses who would come forward.
The Laguna Provincial IAS and the Calabarzon Regional IAS investigators spoke on Friday to the relatives of the victims to get their affidavits of complaint but they said they were not ready to give statements.
The investigators gave them contact numbers through which the teenager’s and drug suspect’s relatives could reach out.
Calabarzon police director Brig. Gen. Eliseo Cruz ordered the Police Intelligence Unit (PIU) Laguna head Capt. Fernando Credo and nine others involved in the incident, to be placed under restrictive custody of the Calabarzon police office.
Police operatives have claimed that the teenager and drug suspect Dalit, the target of the operation who is among Laguna’s ten most wanted persons, fought back while they were serving an arrest warrant on the accused drug offender.
But the teenager's family said the boy and the drug suspect were executed by the policemen.
“I have already instructed the regional director of PRO-CALABARZON and IAS to finish the investigation in the soonest possible time and in the meantime, I ask our kababayan to let the investigations take their course,” said Eleazar. PNP-PIO
