2 South Koreans dead in Angeles City, 5 arrested in Cebu

CLARK FREEPORT ZONE, Philippines—Two South Koreans were found dead, both apparent suicides, this week here and in Angeles City, police said.

Kim Song-hee, 27, fell from the fifth floor of a four-star hotel here shortly after midnight on Friday. But investigators are trying to determine whether Kim committed suicide or was pushed from her fifth-floor room at the Hotel Vida on M. A. Roxas Highway here. There were no witnesses to Kim’s fall.

Kim’s husband, Kwangkyu Lee, 35, told investigators that his wife had previously attempted to end her life in South Korea by slashing her left wrist.

But police did not find any suicide note in the room where the couple was staying.

Closed-circuit television footage showed Kwangkyu dragging Kim outside their room at 12:50 a.m., according to a report of Chief Insp. Luisito Tan of  Angeles City Police Station 4.

Kwangkyu later asked the hotel’s front desk at 1 a.m. to locate his wife.

A security guard checked the hotel’s rear section and found the severely injured Kim on the ground. A Philippine Air Force ambulance rushed Kim to an Angeles City hospital where she died hours later.

On Monday, another Korean was found dead inside his hotel room in Malabanias village in Angeles City. Police said Hyeokyeob Kwon, 37, a resident of Diamond Subdivision in Balibago village in the city, apparently committed suicide by drinking a ferric chloride solution. A note written in Korean was also found in the room. Hyeokyeob checked in at the hotel at 8:45 a.m. and had requested the front desk to give him a wake-up call at 1 p.m. and again at 5 p.m.

The hotel’s front desk clerk told the police that the Korean answered the phone call at

1 p.m. But he did not respond to calls at 5 p.m., prompting the hotel staff to check up on him.

In Cebu, police on Thursday arrested five Koreans for their alleged involvement in online illegal gambling in Lapu-Lapu City.

Arrested during a raid on a house in a subdivision in the city were Steve Lee, also known as Park Sang-min, 32; Jeong Jong-ho, 42; Park In-gyu, 30; An Ji-hwan, 32; and Kang Jae-wook, 39.

Chief Insp. George Ylanan, who heads the regional special operations group of the police regional intelligence division, said Lee was the subject of a search warrant issued by a local judge.

However, the four other Koreans were arrested after they were caught operating the computer units allegedly used in the online gambling operation, Ylanan said. With a report from Chito Aragon, Inquirer Visayas