PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar (File photo)
MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday vowed to cooperate with an independent investigation on the death of a teenager in an anti-illegal cockfighting operation in Valenzuela City over the weekend.
“We respect their choice of a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) probe and we want to assure our full cooperation with the investigation,” PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said in a statement.
This came after Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian confirmed that the NBI will meet with the family of the victim identified as Edwin Arnigo to discuss a separate probe on the incident.
Eleazar also extended his condolences to the family of Arnigo.
He, meanwhile, clarified that the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) will continue its own probe on the incident.
“I have also directed the IAS to conduct a thorough and impartial probe on the incident to determine if there were operational lapses committed by the Valenzuela City police personnel and to come up with results at the soonest possible time,” Eleazar said.
Eleazar added that the IAS will immediately conduct an impartial investigation on deaths that would occur during a police operation.
According to the local police, Arnigo allegedly grabbed the service firearm of one of the responding policemen during the raid on Sunday which resulted in a scuffle.
The service firearm went off and hit Arnigo. The police immediately brought him to the Valenzuela Medical Center where he was declared dead on arrival.
The involved cop with the rank of senior master sergeant has already been placed under restrictive custody and disarmed as a matter of investigative procedure. (with Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)
