The Department of Justice has asked the Angeles City Regional Trial Court to order the immediate transfer of detention for police officers implicated in the kidnapping and killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-Joo in October 2016.
In an eight-page motion, the DoJ’s panel of prosecutors pleaded the Angeles City RTC, Branch 56, to order the transfer of Superintendent Rafael Dumlao III, Senior Police Officer 2 Ricky Sta. Isabel and Jerry Umlang to the Angeles City Jail.
The DoJ prosecutors led by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera assailed the continued detention of Dumlao at the Philippine National Police custodial center in the PNP headquarters in Camp Crime, Quezon City and of Sta. Isabel and Umlang at the National Bureau of Investigation custodial center in Manila, which they branded as special treatment.
The prosecutors argued that such setup, which was approved by the former judge who handled the case but inhibited last March—Judge Irineo Pangilinan Jr. of RTC Branch 58 in May last year, “is not in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations governing inmates undergoing trial of their cases.”
The DoJ said any accused who is already facing trial before the court should be detained in a facility of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
“To say the least, the accused’s continued detention at the PNPCC and NBI facility afford them special treatment as they are subjected to different sets of rules and procedures not afforded to all other detainees under the BJMP control,” the motion dated last June 11 said.
The DoJ prosecutors also argued that the transfer of the three accused to the city jail would be more practical since their continued detention in PNP and NBI is “burdensome, costly and inefficient for the government, particularly for the law enforcement agencies where they are presently detained.”
“The [Angeles City Jail] is nearer to the court where the criminal cases are pending against all the accused. All the more, the BJMP has the resources to sustain the continued confinement, detention and transportation of both accused to and for the court where their case are pending as it is in the institution’s mandate to do so,” they said.
Dumlao, Sta. Isabel and Omlang are three of the accused facing kidnapping for ransom with homicide case before the RTC.
The two other accused are Gerardo “Ding” Santiago, owner of the Gream Funeral Services where the body of the victim was brought, and SPO4 Roy Villegas, who turned into state witness for the prosecutors.
Ick-Joo was abducted on Oct.18, 2016 and killed inside Camp Crame. An alleged victim of the so-called “Tokhang for ransom,” his body was not recovered and reportedly cremated and flushed in the toilet.