Speaker wants Bato to resign
MANILA — House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has called for the resignation of Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, following the killing of a Korean allegedly at the hands of rogue cops, according to an ABS-CBN News report yesterday.
“Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa should immediately resign as chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to save President Rodrigo Duterte from further embarrassment and restore respect to the Office of the PNP Chief,” Alvarez said in a statement.
“The commission of a heinous crime right in his very nose is not only an insult but a clear indication that he has lost the respect of his people,” he said.
Alvarez also called out dela Rosa for being “more interested in having a showbiz career and in landing on society pages of newspaPolicemen pers with his being everywhere doing mundane things like singing videoke and watching concerts.”
“Dela Rosa should buckle down to work or better yet give the job to someone else who is dead serious in leading the PNP in its multi-pronged war against drugs, criminals and the scalawags within its ranks,” he said.
The abduction of Korean Ick-joo Jee and his alleged killing inside Camp Crame has been considered a smack in the face of dela Rosa’s muchvaunted “Oplan Tokhang” drug campaign, after it was discovered that the victim was taken in October 2016 under the guise of an antidrug operation.
"I want to disappear from this world because of so much shame after what my men did," dela Rosa said on January 19. Jee’s killing also shocked the Korean community which maintains a strong presence in the Philippines.
Authorities said Jee was killed the same day he was abducted. His remains were then brought to a funeral parlor in Caloocan City. The police, citing a testimony of a witness, said Jee’s remains were cremated and his ashes flushed down the toilet.
The Department of Justice yesterday found enough grounds to charge SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel and his alleged cohorts for kidnapping for ransom with homicide. The DOJ based its findings on the testimony of SPO4 Roy Villegas and PO2 Christopher Baldovino, who were both part of the group that took Jee, as well as the statements of Jee’s house helper.
Villegas and Baldovino’s statements detailed their knowledge of the incident involving the victim and pointed to Sta. Isabel and his co-conspirators as the abductors who killed the victim. Villegas' testimony identified Sta. Isabel as the one who strangled, and eventually killed Jee. It was also allegedly Sta. Isabel who directed that Jee's remains be brought to a funeral parlor.
A local court yesterday ordered the arrest of the suspects.