BI: ‘Brains’ in Korean’s kidnap-slay still in PH
Former police Lt. Col. Rafael Dumlao III, the alleged “brains” in the abduction and murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, remains in the country and is the subject of a hold departure order (HDO), the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Monday.
“He is in the country. His last travel was in 2024. [He] left with a court-issued departure order and came back a few days after,” BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said in a message to reporters. She noted that Dumlao is the subject of an HDO and an immigration lookout bulletin order (Ilbo).
An Ilbo does not restrict an individual’s right to travel as it is merely serves as a way for immigration officers to monitor their departure. However, a court-issued HDO can be used to prevent suspects or individuals facing criminal charges from leaving the country.
“If we encounter him at any BI-manned port, we will inform the concerned authorities,” Sandoval said.
She explained that arrest warrants are implemented by law enforcement authorities, so should immigration personnel encounter Dumlao, they will just inform the agencies concerned, which will then carry out any orders issued against him.
Following a recent meeting with officials of the South Korean embassy and Korean communities in the Philippines, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin ordered law enforcers to locate and arrest Dumalo, who was tagged as the mastermind in the 2016 kidnap-and-slay case.
In a statement issued in July 2024, the Supreme Court announced that the Court of Appeals (CA) had overturned Dumlao’s acquittal in relation to the criminal charges filed against him.
This was after the appellate court found out that the regional trial court that handled the case had gravely abused its discretion by gross misapprehension of facts when it rendered its decision.
Foregone conclusion
According to the CA, the proceedings before the lower court were “a sham and an apparent mockery of the judicial process such that Dumlao’s acquittal was a foregone conclusion and in total disregard of the evidence.”
Dumlao and two other police officers identified as SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel and SPO4 Roy Villegas, along with Jerry Omlang and Gerardo Santiago, were charged with kidnapping the 53-year-old Jee. The former director of a Korean company in the Philippines was taken from his home in Angeles City on Oct. 18, 2016, in the guise of a drug raid.
Following an investigation, the Department of Justice revealed the victim was strangled in his own vehicle inside Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police, hours after he was kidnapped.
His body was then taken to a funeral parlor in Caloocan City, where it was cremated and the ashes flushed down a toilet.
Dumlao and his cohorts were charged with the crime, although the lower court convicted only Sta. Isabel and Omlang of the crime of kidnapping with homicide, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and car theft. Dumlao was acquitted while Villegas became a witness for the prosecution. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
