(Eagle News) – The head of the Philippine National Police expressed deep shame that those involved in the abduction-slay of a Korean businessmen were members of his police force and that the victim was even killed inside the police’s national headquarters.
PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said he wanted to disappear from the face of the Earth after learning of the crime that happened right inside PNP’s Camp Crame in Quezon City..
“Gusto ko na lang matunaw. Gusto ko lang mag-disappear dito sa mundo dahil sa hiya… I am very sorry na nangyari ang krimen na ito at mga tao ko po ang involved,” Dela Rosa said.
The PNP chief said he found out from policemen themselves inside Camp Crame that the Korean was cremated inside a crematorium owned by a former policeman turned barangay captain.
“Doon namin nalaman sa mga pulis na sa loob pala ng Camp Crame at doon nila pina-cremate sa crematorium at isang retired pulis din pala may-ari na naging barangay kapitan na,” he said.
“They know the whole story of how they took him, brought him to Camp Crame, and strangled him,” Dela Rosa said, referring to police officers accused of involvement in kidnapping and murdering the businessman, who was aged in his 50s.
Camp Crame, the national police headquarters, has a jail as well as administration buildings where all the top officers are based. It was not clear exactly where Korean businessman Ji Ick-Joo, was killed in Camp Crame.
Dela Rosa said that this illegal operation of certain policemen had been going on for some time now.
“Apparently matagal na nila itong ginagawa yung style na kine-cremate ang victim kidnap, kasi ash na, walang body, hindi na mapa-DNA,” he said.
Dela Rosa was so ashamed that this also happened under his watch as the PNP chief, and that some policemen are themselves involved in kidnap for ransom activities.
He said he wanted to kill these policemen involved in the crime, but he could not do so as this was against the law.
“If I have my way, papatayin ko kayo mga pulis kayo na kidnapper. Bilang Chief PNP gusto ko patayin yan, kaso I can’t do it kasi it’s illegal,” he said.
Ji disappeared from his home in Angeles city, about two hours’ drive north of Manila, in October last year.
The kidnappers demanded from his wife a ransom and she initially paid five million pesos ($100,000), thinking he was still alive, authorities said on Wednesday when they first announced details of the police officers’ involvement.
Police chiefs said then that three officers were directly involved and one superior oversaw the operation.
The policemen led the wife to believe her husband was alive for months, but he had been in fact killed on the day he was abducted, police said on Wednesday.
The policemen were from a special taskforce focused solely on illegal drugs stationed at Camp Crame.
The incident has shocked and angered the South Korean government, with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se demanding those behind the crime be brought to justice.
Dela Rosa expressed deep regret on Thursday.
(With a report from Agence France Presse)
