Tracker team pursuing ex-cop tagged in Korean trader’s slay; P1-M reward up
MANILA, Philippines — A tracker team has already been deployed to arrest former police Lt. Col. Rafael Dumlao III, the alleged mastermind in the murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-Joo in 2016.
Executive Secretary and Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) chairperson Lucas Bersamin ordered an intensified manhunt for Dumlao after meeting with representatives of the Korean community to discuss security concerns last week.
“There’s a team to track him down. We’ll find him. He knows how to hide, being a former police officer, but he will eventually be found,” said Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil in an interview with reporters in Parañaque City on Monday.
Meanwhile, a P1-million reward has been offered for information that will lead to Dumlao’s arrest, the PAOCC confirmed to INQUIRER.net in a message also on Monday.
READ: Bersamin orders intensified manhunt for cop tagged in Korean trader’s death
Acquittal overturned
Dumlao was initially acquitted by the Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 60 in June 2023.
But last July, according to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals overturned the acquittal for “grave abuse of discretion” and found Dumlao guilty of kidnapping and killing Jee.
Dumlao was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison without parole and ordered to pay Jee’s family P350,000 in damages for kidnapping and homicide.
“Initially, before, he had a surrender feeler. We went to all his possible locations,” Marbil said.
READ: Why court acquitted the ‘brains’ behind Korean businessman’s slay
Jee was reportedly strangled inside his car parked at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. Jee was later cremated and his ashes flushed down a toilet.
The PNP found Dumlao guilty and dismissed him from the service in 2018 for the administrative offense of grave misconduct for his alleged involvement in killing Jee.
The Angeles City court allowed Dumlao to post bail in 2019 after prosecutors supposedly failed to prove evidence that his guilt was strong.
