2 cops relieved for slay try on teen snatcher

MANILA, Philippines - Two Marikina policemen were ordered relieved from their posts and investigated for allegedly trying to kill a 16-year-old snatcher last week.

Eastern Police District (EPD) director Chief Superintendent Elmer Jamias vowed yesterday to institute dismissal proceedings against Police Officer 3 Ralph Catulin and Police Officer 1 Mark Paul Palcon should they be found guilty.

Catulin and Palcon failed to report for work at the Calumpang precinct of the Marikina City police since the victim told TV5 about his ordeal.

According to initial reports, an unidentified citizen found the teen, naked and bloodied, in a grassy, dimly lit portion of the Marikina riverbank last week.

The teen said he was a snatcher but has reformed after two of his fellow snatchers were recently killed by local police officers.

He said he was walking at a mall when two policemen accosted him and brought him to the precinct on charges he snatched a housewife’s wallet in Barangay Calumpang.

After the policemen took turns beating him up, the teen said a drunken Catulin arrived and beat him. He was forced into a car and brought to the riverbank, where his two friends were earlier found dead.

The teen said Catulin ordered him to undress, then shot him in the foot. He managed to run to the nearest mall, where the guards gave him first aid.

The guards, however, turned him over to the same police precinct, where he was tortured for at least an hour and returned – hogtied and shot six times – to the riverbank, where a citizen found him.

Records at the Calumpang police precinct showed that the teen was arrested for snatching but was released later after the complainant refused to file charges against him.