Mastermind in Jee Ick-joo slay case arrested

MANILA, Philippines — In hiding for nearly two years, former police lieutenant colonel Rafael Dumlao III was arrested yesterday in Quezon City.

Dumlao is the mastermind in the 2016 kidnapping and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo.

Acting on a tip, operatives of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) barged into a house in Barangay Pasong Tamo where Dumlao was hiding, according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.

“It looks like he has been there for a while. We don’t know who owns the house, but we have an informant who saw him there,” Remulla said at a news briefing in Camp Crame.

The Philippine government has informed South Korean President Lee Jay Myung and Jee’s widow about Dumlao’s arrest.

Authorities had offered a bounty of P1.09 million for Dumlao’s capture.

Dumlao hid in plain sight, staying mostly in Metro Manila, Remulla said.

High walls and trees surrounded the Pasong Tamo house.

Intelligence operatives monitored the location for three weeks after receiving a tip.

“We would like to thank and congratulate the community and operating unit. Community why? Because they provided leads so we can track the fugitive,” Philippine National Police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said.

Remulla said police tracked Dumlao’s online activity as he watched on Sunday his daughter’s wedding on Facebook.

Forensic investigators are examining Dumlao’s gadgets to identify the people who may have assisted him in hiding from authorities.

Seized from Dumlao were a .9mm caliber Taurus pistol, a laptop and a cell phone.

Sham drug war

Remulla said Dumlao’s arrest serves as an example to other policemen that former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs was a sham.

The Duterte administration’s flagship anti-drug campaign, Oplan Tokhang, gave police officers the green light to commit abuses, Remulla asserted.

“Tokhang gave too much license to PNP operatives to do things at their whim without the process of law,” he said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson welcomed Dumlao’s arrest.

Lacson had filed Senate Resolution 265, which sought an inquiry into Jee’s killing and other kidnap-for-ransom schemes perpetrated by police in the guise of enforcing the drug war. – Neil Jayson Servallos