Police Superintendent Rafael Dumlao III of the defunct Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) insisted that he had nothing to do with kidnap-slay of Korean Jee Ick Joo.
“I am one of the Respondents in the reinvestigation and I deny in the strongest possible terms I committed any overt act/s tantamount to any of the offenses complained of,” read the counter-affidavit he filed before the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The DoJ has been conducting a reinvestigation upon the orders of Angeles City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 58 which is handling the case.
In his counter-affidavit, Dumlao refuted the accusations made by his co-respondents in the case that he was the mastermind of the crime.
“In an attempt to cover up their crime and sway the ends of justice, SPO3 Ricky M. Sta., SPO4 Roy L. Villegas, and Jerry Omlang, implicated me in this Complaint by fabricating a malicious story that is bereft of any truth,” he said.
Apart from this, Dumlao said that Marisa Dawis, Jee’s maid who also got abducted but was eventually released, never implicated him in the crime.
On the day Jee was abducted on October 18, 2016 from Angeles City, Dumlao said that he was preparing for his trip to China when he was met by Sta. Isabel, who took the Korean, to the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Cram, Quezon City.
“He informed me that they had an operation with the NBI-NCR (National Bureau of Investigation-National Capital Region) and his friends from the NBI would like to make it appear that the AIDG was the one authorized the ‘operation’ as its ‘accomplishment,” Dumlao recounted.
Sta. Isabel also said that those who accompanied him to take Jee were subordinates under then NBI-NCR Regional Director Ric Diaz who would also handle any complications about the operation.
Sta. Isabel added that the NBI narcotics team and NBI Deputy Director Jose Yap also knew of the operation.
Diaz, Yap, and Roel Bolivar, then NBI Task Force Against Illegal Drugs head Noel, Bolivar were included as suspects by the PNP-Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG) in its complaints filed with the DoJ.
The PNP-AKG used as basis in including the three NBI officials the other sworn affidavit previously submitted by Dumlao.
However, Dumlao said he turned down Sta. Isabel after inspecting that the arrest warrant was fake.
Because of this, Dumlao said that Sta. Isabel started to get mad at him and threatened the former and his family.
After learning that PNP-AKG was conducting an investigation on the Jee’s kidnapping, Dumlao said Sta. Isabel wanted the former to cover up whatever happened.
“He told me that if I did not cooperate, he and his contacts would go after my wife who is working in the NBI; and that they also know the boarding house of my child,” Dumlao said.
“Sta. Isabel also added that if he gets pinned in the herein 18 October 2016 incident, he would make it appear that I was the one who masterminded the abduction and killing of the Korean and this is where my future will be destroyed,” he claimed. (Jeffrey Damicog)
