MANILA, Philippines — The police asset who identified 17-year-old Kian delos Santos to the police before they killed the teenager in a drug sweep two years ago finally had his day in court.
Renato “Nonong” Loveraz was not accompanied by a lawyer when he appeared at the Caloocan regional trial court for arraignment last Thursday.
Loveraz was designated a public attorney when he pleaded not guilty to murder and planting of evidence charges read out to him at the Caloocan RTC Branch 125.
He was arraigned after Judge Rodolfo Azucena Jr. granted the Department of Justice’s ex-parte motion to reinstate the case in the active docket of the court, after the charges against Loveraz were archived since he was at large while the convicted policemen were on trial.
Loveraz will be represented by a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Camanava chapter during trial. Pretrial conference is set on March 28.
Kian’s uncle Randy delos Santos expressed relief that the family could soon find closure.
He lamented that the convicted policemen seemed to have hidden their informant from the judge as they were tried for murder.
“The asset should also be held accountable. What I don’t understand was why they even wanted to hide the asset from the judge,” Randy said.
State prosecutors sought the revival of the case against Loveraz, initially thought to have gone missing but was apparently detained at the Caloocan city jail for an illegal drug case filed against him by the policemen who killed Kian.
Loveraz allegedly pointed at Kian as being involved in the illegal drug trade, but Kian’s family has denied this.
The prosecutor notified the court that Loveraz had been in detention since Sept. 13, 2017 for a case pending before the Caloocan RTC Branch 123, based on a certificate of detention signed by Caloocan city jail records chief Senior Jail Officer IV Chona Apuac-Seno.
Police Officer 1 Jerwin Cruz, one of the policemen convicted of Kian’s murder, is a prosecution witness as one of the officers who arrested Loveraz and three others for drugs at around the same time as Kian’s murder on Aug. 16, 2017.
Cruz, PO1 Jeremias Pereda and PO3 Arnel Oares have appealed their conviction. They were found guilty of firing gunshots that killed Kian along the bank of the Tullahan River and sentenced to serve life terms at the New Bilibid Prison.
The judge, however, dismissed the planting of evidence charges due to insufficient evidence.