Mortuary owner in Korean slay returns, claims innocence
Claiming innocence in the kidnapping and killing of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, former policeman Gerardo Santiago has returned to the country and sought protective custody under the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday.
Santiago owns Gream Funeral Services – the mortuary where Jee’s body was supposedly brought and cremated,
his ashes flushed in a toilet sometime later. He is also chairman of Caloocan City’s barangay 165.
Flying in from Toronto, Canada with his wife Elvira, he insisted he has nothing to do with the Korean’s case.
“I returned because I am not guilty. If I am, then I would not have returned. I would have preferred hiding in Canada,” Santiago said in Filipino when presented to the media by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and the NBI.
He added that he is ready to face any case that will be filed against him.
The Philippine National Police ( PNP) said Santiago’s return is a welcome development in the kidnapslay case as spokesman Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos said this is an opportunity for the former policeman to “tell the truth.”
Santiago, who retired as senior police officer 4 in 2007, is allegedly the one referred to as alias “Ding” in a kidnapping for ransom with homicide charge before the Regional Trial Court branch 58 of Angeles City.
Still without a lawyer, he refused to answer when asked about his relationship with Senior Police Officer 3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, why he chose the NBI for protective custody, and if he would cooperate in the ongoing probe on Jee’s kidnapping and death.
But NBI spokesman Ferdinand Lavin said Santiago might cooperate because “he promised that he will tell all, he promised to cooperate… he will tell the truth on what really happened as far as he is concerned.”
Earlier reports indicated that he ordered his staff to flush Jee’s ashes after the victim’s wife Choi Kyung-jin sought last Jan. 12 the NBI’s help to probe the kidnapping. The agency initially found that Jee’s ashes were flushed a day before Sta. Isabel sought protective custody also under the NBI on Jan. 16.
Sta. Isabel allegedly led other policemen in kidnapping Jee in Angeles City, Pampanga on Oct. 18 last year. Two weeks after, Jee’s wife was said to have paid P5 million to the kidnappers. After the payoff, the kidnappers demanded another P4.5 million.
A Department of Justice resolution disclosed that Jee was strangled with a towel until he died inside a black Ford Explorer parked inside Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP), on the evening of Oct. 18.
It also indicated that Sta. Isabel called a certain “Ding” who agreed to receive Jee’s body in exchange for P30,000 and a golf set.
Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan confirmed that Santiago personally filed a leave of absence on Dec. 8, 2016 to go to Canada on “personal reasons.” The leave took effect on Jan. 10 and Santiago is expected to return to work after Feb. 10.
A source told The STAR that Santiago’s family vacationed in Canada, where the eldest child is said to be living and working.
Another source earlier said that Santiago and Sta. Isabel were members of a group of policemen and civilians who “bolt in whenever they have work,” a term that refers to kidnapping jobs. Both worked together in Caloocan when Sta. Isabel was assigned to the Northern Police District’s criminal investigation and detection unit.
Aguirre said that Santiago and wife went home from Toronto, Canada at 6:14 a.m. onboard a Philippine Airlines flight PR-119 even after receiving threats from two groups that he did not identify.
He added that Santiago requested to be met by NBI agents on arrival, placed under protective custody “because of threats to his life” and entered to the DOJ witness protection program (WPP).
The justice chief said though that the request to be placed under WPP could only be processed after Santiago gets a lawyer and executes an affidavit. The STAR learned that the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) might counsel Santiago, as in the case of Sta. Isabel whose private lawyer withdrew after receiving threats.