Joe Pallugna
I ATTENDED the Senate inquiry in aid of legislation on Jan. 26, 2017, at the Senate Session Hall in Manila in relation to the kidnapping and murder of Korean Jee Ick Joo with my client Ricky Sta. Isabel as one of the invited personalities.
Presided in by committee chairman Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the members are senators Leila de Lima, Manny Pacquiao, Riza Honteveros, Grace Poe, Tito Sotto and Bam Aquino, with Senate President Koko Pimentel also in attendance.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and NBI director Guerran and PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa and his top brass in the AKG and the AIDG were also present, with other resource persons.
It was a revealing session as the six-hour interrogations of the invited persons brought out surprising facts.
Not only was Ricky Sta. Isabel able to bare his own version of the “facts” and pointed at his alleged superiors who ordered him to perform acts in relation to the abduction of Jee, his killing and cremation.
Everyone was clearly in agreement that there must be a reinvestigation by the Department of Justice, with the cooperation of the NBI and the PNP so that the real leaders of the kidnapping will be charged and prosecuted.
Sen. Lacson even hinted that the accused can be acquitted on technicality if the prosecutors and their witnesses could not get their acts together as the NBI and the PNP have conflicting theories of this Korean kidnapping incident.
Apparently for me and for many ordinary people, I cannot believe really that a mere SPO3 like Ricky Sta. Isabel can organize an effective kidnap-foransom gang operating right from Camp Crame.
There must be practically some senior officers involved, as what SPO3 Sta. Isabel had been asserting all along. The truth of his allegations should be investigated further and his credibility should not just be quickly brushed aside as incredible and untrue.
Sta. Isabel is an insider in this kidnap-murder case of the Korean. He admits to have been ordered to kill and dispose of the body of the housemaid.
He admits to have guided the vehicle which brought the cadaver of the Korean to Graem Funeral Home in Caloocan City. He is an eyewitness to the crime. Although his participation is direct in two stages of the crime, he asserts that he had no knowledge of the actual abduction, the killing, the demand for and the receipt of the P5-million ransom money.
He denies knowledge of and participation in the kidnapping of Jee Ick Joo.
In all these circumstances, a reinvestigation is very much in order. The truth should be sought for with a dogged determination so the real guilty parties should be prosecuted.
At this time, only Ricky Sta. Isabel and two lowanking policemen are charged criminally in the Regional Trial Court of Angeles City, Pampanga.
The P5-million ransom paid by the widow of Jee Ick Joo is still starkly missing. Someone out there is still P5 million richer. A widow out there is crying. And some guilty police officers are still roaming around free and may never be indicted of this heinous crime.
If truth be really told, let us all stop pretending that Ricky Sta. Isabel is the kidnap gang leader. No, he is not.
He is only the fall guy.
His testimony is the pivotal point to the whole truth.
Let the next Senate inquiry be the key to push for the full reinvestigation of this case and prevent a whitewash of this whole sordid incident.
E-mail: ajpallugna@gmail.com
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