SPO3 Sta. Isabel’s superior relieved
The chief of the Philippine National Police-Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNPAIDG) was relieved from his post and placed under restrictive custody after he was implicated in the kidnapping and killing of a South Korean businessman.
PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa ordered Supt. Rafael Dumlao III to be placed on “freezer” status under the custody of the PNP’s Headquarters Support Service.
This means Dumlao has to inform his superiors and must be accompanied by a police escort if he wishes to leave the PNP
headquarters in Camp Crame.
Dumlao was among the police officials tagged in the killing of Jee Ick-joo last Oct. 18.
A government investigation identified the alleged killer as SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, an operative of the AIDG.
Sta. Isabel accused Dumlao of ordering the killing of the Korean businessman.
The policemen detained Jee with a fake arrest warrant last October with the intent of holding him for ransom, but killed him the same day. They managed to extract a ransom payment from Jee’s family without telling them Jee was dead.
Dumlao denied his subordinate’s allegation, saying there were witnesses pointing to Sta. Isabel as the killer.
“Contrary to the evidence at hand and the witnesses’ account, everybody is pointing at him,” Dumlao said in a TV interview.
Dela Rosa yesterday said he had already talked with Dumlao.
Dela Rosa said he had the impression that Dumlao is lying. “He is hiding something,” he said.
Dela Rosa, citing the information from a witness, said Sta. Isabel and Dumlao were there when Jee was killed inside the AIDG headquarters in Camp Crame.
He did not reveal other details provided by the witness, who is now in their custody.
According to Dela Rosa, Sta. Isabel threatened to take everyone involved in Jee’s murder down with him if someone speaks out.
“He was threatening Dumlao and his companions,” Dela Rosa said of Sta. Isabel.
Dela Rosa said Sta. Isabel had warned his fellow officers that he knows the location of their respective families. “Now he is trying to become the least guilty person.”
A way out
Sta. Isabel’s wife Jinky claimed yesterday Dumlao made an offer for her husband to avoid being implicated in the Korean’s death.
The scenario that Dumlao reportedly offered is they would kill three policemen and a civilian in Angeles City, Pampanga and make it appear that they were the ones who kidnapped and killed Jee.
“They would say my husband was just an overseer, a lookout,” Jinky told a press conference in Quezon City.
Her husband’s role was supposedly to identify the four that would be killed as the ones who kidnapped and killed Jee.
She said they did not agree to the set-up as it would make her husband an accessory to the crime.
She said a certain Col. Macapagal was aware of the offer based on her phone conversation with Dumlao last Jan. 14.
Jinky told media representatives she recorded her conversations with Dumlao which began at 7 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. She did not say if there were gaps during their talk.
The alleged phone call from Dumlao happened a day before Sta. Isabel received an order from Dela Rosa placing him under restrictive custody.
Dumlao allegedly told Jinky that Jee had been under surveillance by the AIDG for being a drug lord and reporting to a certain Albert Chua, another suspected drug trafficker.
Jinky said her husband was just being used as a fall guy in Jee’s killing and accused Dumlao of being the one responsible for the Korean’s death.
She said her husband saw Dumlao hitting Jee several times with a .45 caliber pistol while inside Camp Crame on Oct. 18 last year, the day the victim was killed.
Jinky said her husband was instructed to kill Jee’s Filipina housemaid who, together with the Korean, was kidnapped from Angeles City.
Sta. Isabel allegedly spared the housemaid, who begged for her life. When he returned to Camp Crame, the Korean was already dead and Dumlao reportedly instructed him to have the victim’s corpse cremated at a funeral parlor in Caloocan City.
Jinky said they are now fearing for their lives, adding their private lawyers have backed out because of threats they have been receiving.
Asked where these threats were coming from, she pointed to Dela Rosa.
“You have heard him on television and radio. Who has been issuing threats? It’s only him, General Bato,” Jinky said, using Dela Rosa’s nickname.
Public Attorney’s Office ( PAO) chief Persida Acosta did not name the lawyer but confirmed he withdrew from the case because of the threats he was getting.
The PAO assigned two lawyers to handle Sta. Isabel’s case. Sta. Isabel was detained at the National Bureau of Investigation main office in Manila before he was taken into custody by the PNP-AntiKidnapping Group (AKG).
Two PAO lawyers arrived at the NBI as the AKG served the copy of the arrest warrant against Sta. Isabel and seven others issued by the Angeles City, Pampanga Regional Trial Court Branch 58.
“The NBI drafted Sta. Isabel’s statement in the presence of two lawyers,” a source said, referring to the PAO lawyers.
The Department of Justice on Friday filed the case against Sta. Isabel, SPO4 Roy Villegas, Ramon Yalung and four other policemen who were only identified as “Pulis,” “Jerry,” “Sir Dumlao” and “Ding.”