Friends, relatives remember Jee Ick-joo’s death at Camp Crame

Relatives and friends of Jee Ick-joo on Friday, October 18, 2019, hold memorial services at Camp Crame in Quezon City to commemorate the death of the South Korean businessman three years ago. INQUIRER.net photo / Cathrine Gonzales

MANILA, Philippines — Relatives and friends of Jee Ick-joo on Friday held memorial services for the late South Korean businessman, three years after his tragic death allegedly under the hands of policemen inside the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Moments before his death on October 18, 2016, the 53-year-old former director of a South Korean company in the Philippines, was kidnapped allegedly by policemen at his home in Angeles City, Pampanga in the guise of a drug raid.

Hours later, he was strangled to death inside his own vehicle at Camp Crame, according to investigation reports.

A resolution of the Department of Justice quoted Executive Master Sergeant Roy Villegas, one of the officers accused but had turned state witness, as saying that Chief Master Sergeant Ricky Sta. Isabel was the one who killed Jee inside the police camp. Sta. Isabel denied this claim.

Villegas also alleged that Sta. Isabel called a certain “Ding” to dispose Jee’s body in exchange for P30,000 and a golf set.

The remains of Jee were then brought to a funeral parlor in Caloocan City where it was cremated. His ashes were flushed down a toilet.

Jee was already dead at the time when his kidnappers still demanded P5 million ransom from his wife.

Following Jee’s death, President Rodrigo Duterte suspended the involvement of the PNP in the bloody drug war and apologized to the South Korean government. He later reinstated the PNP to the anti-drug campaign in February 2017. /jpv

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