Sen. Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Did the head of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) meet with the wife of the principal suspect in the abduction and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo last January 13?
Senator Leila de Lima raised this question on Friday as she expressed reservations about AKG’s continued involvement in the investigation of Jee’s death.
READ: Korean businessman killed inside PNP headquarters
AKG is headed by Senior Superintendent Glenn Dumlao.
De Lima said Dumlao should first answer if it was true that he, along with another AKG member Colonel Allan Macapagal, and Supt. Rafael Dumlao of the Anti- Illegal Drugs Group, met with SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel’s wife Jinky and the latter’s lawyer last Jan. 13, between 10 and 11 p.m., at Camp Crame Tennis Court near Land Bank.
“If so, what was that meeting all about? What exactly was discussed? Why would the two AKG officials (Glenn Dumlao and Macapagal), who were supposedly doing a probe re Jee’s case, be meeting with the camp of SPO3 Sta Isabel, then principal suspect?” she said in a text message.
“Without casting aspersions on his integrity, Glenn Dumlao ought to explain this intriguing aspect of the case.”
“Absent a satisfactory explanation, it would be best if he recuse himself from the reinvestigation of the case, and for that matter, AKG should be divested of its role in such reinvestigation and transfer the same to another more appropriate unit, say, CIDG,” De Lima added.
CIDG is the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
It was Sta. Isabel who allegedly strangled the Korean inside the PNP headquarters in Quezon City.
READ: Evidence overwhelming against SPO3 Sta. Isabel
Jee, along with a house help, was taken by a group of police allegedly led by Sta. Isabel during an anti-drug operation from his home in Angeles City, Pampanga last October 18.
Sta. Isabel’s superior, Rafael Dumlao, was also tagged in the abduction and murder of Jee.
The Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs chaired by Senator Panfilo Lacson has started its own investigation on the case but decided to temporarily suspend it after one hearing.
In suspending the hearing, Lacson cited the positive action taken by President Rodrigo Duterte, who ordered the internal cleansing of the PNP ranks following the alleged involvement of some of its officers in Jee’s killing. RAM/rga