EDITORIAL — Justice for Jee Ick-joo

It was among the most gruesome and notorious cases of police abuse in the bloody crackdown launched by the Duterte administration on the illegal drug scourge. On Oct. 18, 2016, barely four months into the new administration, South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo was snatched from his home in Angeles, Pampanga and taken in his own vehicle to Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police, where he was strangled to death inside the SUV.

His body was taken to a funeral parlor in Caloocan, cremated and the ashes flushed down the toilet. Meanwhile, his kidnappers, belonging to the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, negotiated with his wife for an P8-million ransom. She paid P5 million but never found her husband.

Fortunately, the National Bureau of Investigation traced the funeral parlor and uncovered the fate that befell Jee. Several policemen and an NBI aide were arrested. Unfortunately for Jee’s widow, the person tagged even by then president Rodrigo Duterte as the mastermind, Lt. Col. Rafael Dumlao of the PNP-AIDG, was cleared by Angeles City Regional Trial Court Judge Eda Dizon. The RTC cited inconsistencies in the statements of the witnesses against Dumlao, whom the court had previously allowed to post bail.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals reversed Dizon’s ruling and convicted Dumlao. The CA declared that the RTC gravely abused its discretion through gross misapprehension of facts, with Dumlao’s acquittal a foregone conclusion that disregarded the evidence. Dizon’s trial of Dumlao, the CA said, was a sham and an apparent mockery of the judicial process.

The CA sentenced Dumlao to life in prison without eligibility for parole and ordered him to pay P350,000 in damages for kidnapping with homicide; another life term and P225,000 in damages for the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Jee’s house helper, Marisa Morquicho, and up to 35 years for stealing the Korean’s SUV. Dumlao’s co-accused were convicted in June last year and also received life terms.

At least Jee and Morquicho have received justice – something that remains elusive for the thousands of others who were killed or suffered abuse in the war on drugs. The case highlights the difficulty of pursuing accountability in the atrocities committed during the brutal crackdown. It illustrates how easy state power can be abused if law enforcers are given blanket authority to carry out their work.