The abduction and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo last October 18 allegedly by some rogue policemen was “enough for the police force to lose public trust and respect,” Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said on Wednesday.
“The Jee Ick-joo kidnap-slay case was indeed tragic and unfortunate but enough for the police force to lose public trust and respect,” Lacson said when he opened the Senate probe on Jee’s murder as chairman of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs.
“Amid these appalling circumstances, we must ask ourselves: Do our men in uniform live by the honor and pride of their police badges and outfits? Or should our people live in horror and fear, unsure of their safety, at the sight of police officers in their neighborhood and even in their homes?”
“The answer lies (on) our invited resource persons today,” he said.
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Among those present in the hearing were Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and other police officials, including SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, who allegedly strangled the victim to death inside the PNP headquarters on the night he was arrested.
Sta. Isabel’s superior and team leader of the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, Supt. Raphael Dumlao, also one of the suspects in the kidnap-slay, attended the hearing.
The victim’s widow, Choi Kyung-jin, was likewise, present in the probe.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
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Lacson said the Mamasapano incident that left 44 elite policemen dead two years ago was also tragic and unfortunate.
“Twenty-one months forward, we find ourselves back in this same hall of the Senate for yet another legislative inquiry in aid of legislation, now to ferret out the truth behind the kidnap-slay of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo, perpetrated by rogue cops rotten to the core in the guise of conducting Tokhang inside the Friendship Plaza Subdivision in Angeles City, Pampanga,” he said.
“Ruins are what remain of colossal structures that previously stood with magnificence and grandeur. Today, we stand among the partial ruins of an institution tasked to serve and protect the Filipino people. Just when we thought we would stand proud as we commemorated yesterday the heroism and valor of 44 fallen police officers, here we are, appalled and angered by this ‘tokhang for ransom’ incident.”
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“It’s uncanny, it’s inconceivable, totally unprecedented. In fact, we have to yet come up with superlatives to describe this absurdity,” the senator added. IDL/rga