A Pampanga court has found a police officer and a former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent guilty in the kidnapping and assassination of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo in 2016.
Suspects SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel and former NBI agent Jerry Omlang were charged of kidnapping with homicide and were sentenced by the Angeles Regional Trial Court Branch 60 to indefinite confinement or up to 40 years in prison.
The two were also convicted of kidnapping with serious illegal detention in connection with the abduction of Jee's helper, Marisa Marquicho, as well as carnapping Jee's SUV, which was used to transport them from his home in Angeles, Pampanga to Camp Crame in Quezon City.
They will also serve another 22 to 25 years in prison, apart from another 40-year reclusion perpetua prison term for the kidnapping.
Supt. Rafael Dumlao, the suspected mastermind, was acquitted on all three charges after the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Omlang and Dumlao were both present for the proclamation, whereas Sta. Isabel participated via videoconference from a jail facility in Angeles.
In 2019, Dumlao had previously been granted bail by Angeles RTC Br. 56, concluding that none of the witnesses established "a specific act or acts... had convincingly demonstrated his cooperation in the kidnapping and execution of the victim Ick Joo Jee," while denying bail for the two other suspects.
Kyung Jin Choi, Jee's wife, burst into tears upon hearing the verdict, and her fellow Koreans expressed their dissatisfaction with the judgment.
The president of the Korean Veterans in the Philippines, James Lee, said that they believed that Dumlao was the one who organized and committed the kidnapping, but several years later, things have been changing, and couldn’t believe that he was found guilty.
Dumlao declined to speak to the press, while the public has yet to receive a full copy of the judgment.
The verdict came nearly seven years after he was kidnapped from his home in Angeles City and murdered at the Philippine National Police headquarters.
Meanwhile, Jee's death aroused widespread outcry against the Philippine government's drug campaign, bringing the government's anti-drug war effort, nicknamed Oplan Tokhang, to a halt.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte apologized to the government of South Korea over Jee's death.
