For many years now, there have been numerous reports of rogue cops kidnapping, planting drugs and shaking down people.
Some of the victims have broken certain laws – they’re the easiest to shake down in exchange for a guarantee that they will have no criminal record. But many other victims are law-abiding individuals.
So it’s not surprising that cops are again the principal suspects in the kidnapping of a South Korean in October last year in Pampanga.
It’s not even surprising that Jee Ick-joo, an executive of South Korean shipping giant Hanjin, was snatched from his home in Angeles City in the course of Oplan Tokhang by a team from the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Legal and human rights experts have been warning that this brutal war on drugs, with little accountability and with the enforcers enjoying an unprecedented license to kill, is highly prone to abuse.
The abuses are perpetrated because those responsible clearly believe they can literally get away with murder. It’s the same mindset that made several members of the Ampatuan clan believe they could get away with the 2009 massacre of 58 people who were buried crudely together with their vehicles in a shallow grave in Maguindanao.
These thugs commit murder because they feel sure that they won’t be made to pay for it.
Jee Ick-joon’s kidnapping for ransom followed by his grisly execution was bound to happen. Tokhang and Double Barrel are designed to encourage such a hideous abuse of authority.
* * *
After Jee’s murder, another major embarrassment for the Philippines would be the snail-paced prosecution of the suspects.
South Korea has one of the world’s most efficient justice systems – swift, credible, and generally fair regardless of one’s status in life. Koreans have told me that they tend to hold their public officials and wealthy citizens to a higher standard of good behavior.
The Koreans have convicted and sent to prison two former presidents, with a third throwing himself off a cliff after his wife was implicated in a corruption scandal. Several heads of Korean chaebols or industrial conglomerates have also served time for corruption. The Korean Air heiress went to prison after throwing a fit over macadamia nuts on a flight out of New York. Currently, heads of several South Korean corporate giants are again under investigation after being implicated in a scandal that can bring down President Park Geun-hye.
So Koreans are going to watch closely the progress in the prosecution of those responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Jee Ick-joo. A trial that lasts beyond a year would be slow for Koreans, and the usual 10 to 20 years of Philippine adjudication would be a disaster.
Giving those “tokhang for ransom” cops a dose of their own medicine might be better, except Koreans also look askance at extrajudicial methods of enforcing the law.
* * *
For several years now, Korean officials have been expressing concern to Philippine government agencies including the PNP about the safety of their citizens in this country. Articles have been written in South Korea, warning about Korean tourists and expats in the Philippines being murdered, kidnapped, shaken down by immigration and airport personnel, or being victims of carjacking and burglary.
There was a time when Koreans arriving at the NAIA were tailed and then waylaid along C-5 road, raising suspicions that airport personnel were part of the racket. The PNP fielded additional cops along C-5 and the attacks stopped.
Koreans account for the largest number of tourists in our country – an average of a million a year, or about a fifth of the total in 2016. The number could be greater if they didn’t have these personal safety problems.
Aside from Koreans, Chinese visitors are vulnerable. As a Tsinoy crime watchdog reported, at least 11 Chinese nationals have been victimized by “tokhang for ransom” cops.
This could negate any positive impact of President Duterte’s rapprochement with Beijing, which the administration hopes will translate into more visitors from China.
Preliminary figures show that last year the Philippines had 128,000 tourists from China. Contrast this with the nearly eight million Chinese who visited Thailand, becoming that country’s largest source of tourists in 2016. Despite the terrorist bombing of a shrine in Bangkok, Thailand is projecting its 2016 foreign tourist total at an enviable 34 million.
The Philippine total in 2016 is seen at 5.6 million, below the government target. We could use more visitors, but “tokhang for ransom” is scarier for potential tourists than the threat of a terrorist bombing. Especially if prospective visitors learn about the details of Jee Ick-joon’s gangland-style gruesome killing by strangulation, complete with plastic bag and packing tape.
* * *
It doesn’t help that the suspects are members of the police unit that is directly responsible for carrying out Du30’s pet program, the war on drugs.
Principal suspect Senior Police Officer 3 Ricky Sta. Isabel looks untrustworthy, but he could be telling the truth about the involvement of his direct superior in the AIDG, Superintendent Rafael Dumlao. That kind of operation can’t be conducted without the knowledge of the team leader, which can also explain why Jee had to be taken to the AIDG main office at Camp Crame for his execution, within spitting distance of the official residence of PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa.
At least one part of a story narrated by Sta. Isabel’s wife Jinky is also plausible – that there was a plan to kill three cops and a civilian in Angeles City, tag them as drug personalities, and then blame them for Jee’s murder. Jinky claimed Dumlao planned this, but it’s possible that Sta. Isabel was the one who concocted the plot.
Drug dealers and top terrorists have waltzed out of Camp Crame detention in the past, so Jee’s murder at the PNP headquarters is not that surprising.
Dumlao has been sacked and is in the freezer while Sta. Isabel is in detention. But given the lack of accountability in the bloody war on drugs, tokhang for ransom and similar murders can spread.
There have always been crooked cops, and the current environment gives them a free hand to do what they wish. Unless authorities come down hard on Jee’s killers, there will be many other tokhang for ransom cases.
Rogue cops will do it for the simplest reason: because they can.