Relieved NBI exec uses Facebook to air his side

By Juan Escandor Jr. NAGA CITY---An official of the National Bureau of Investigation, who has been relieved following allegation he was part of the group that kidnapped and killed a Korean businessman last year, took to Facebook to air his side and explain to his friends why the allegation against him is not true.

Lawyer Ricardo Diaz, a native of Calabanga, Camarines Sur and former NBI regional director of Bicol, posted series of status statements since Feb. 1 explaining why he is innocent of the allegation that he is part of the group that kidnapped and killed Korean businessman Jee Ikc Joo while branding his accuser Supt. Rafael Dumlao a liar. With his permission to publish his Facebook statements, Diaz, who started a career as broadcast journalist in this city in the 1980s, said Dumlao “is akin to a drowning man who would grasp at anybody to bring down with him.” “I have to defend myself from lies, falsehoods and malicious concoctions of Supt. Rafael Dumlao despite the agreement between the NBI and PNP (Philippine National Police) to make way for a joint investigation,” he said. Diaz said he did not know Dumlao nor his lawyer-wife serving at the NBI Anti-Human Trafficking Division until lately and that he first only saw Dumlao at the start of the Senate hearing in the last week of January. “Funny and pathetic is this Supt. Rafael Dumlao who alleges that he is scared because there are ‘high officials involved in the Jee Ikc Joo kidnapping case which the PNP cannot match’ as parroted by Bato de la Rosa despite the creation of the joint NBI-PNP investigation group who just started its investigation and jumping the gun on them,” he commented. He said Dumlao “who is lying through his teeth is afraid of his own shadow since the evidence points to him as the mastermind.” Diaz said Sta. Isabel pinpointed Dumlao, his boss, as the one who ordered the surveillance and arrest of the victim allegedly for drugs. He said the wife of Sta. Isabel, Jingky, executed a testimony that Dumlao tried to convince her to go with the scenario that they will kill Angeles City policemen making it appear that they are the ones involved and acquit SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel. Diaz said there is also the testimony of Agent Darwin Lising that his friend Supt. Rafael Dumlao kept texting and calling him by phone looking for the missing Jerry Omlang. In a report of the Inquirer.net on Feb. 3, Omlang, one of those tagged in the abduction and killing of South Korean national Jee Ick Joo, said only cops, and not National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents, were involved in the crime. He was tagged as the former errand boy at the NBI. Diaz also cited the extrajudicial confession of Omlang that Dumlao was present before the surveillance operation and was calling Sta. Isabel during the kidnapping and was present at Camp Crame when Jee Ick Joo was brought there and was the one who ordered him to withdraw money from the victim’s ATM (automated teller machine). He said the owner of the Gream Funeral Parlor, where the body of Jee Ikc Joo was brought, also testified that Dumlao called him by phone and arranged for the cadaver to be brought to his funeral parlor. “Then, he would point to the NBI officials too late in the day in his statement that not even under oath and not in affidavit form and complete hearsay which has no evidentiary value in court?” Diaz said he hopes Dumlao can still sleep well after destroying the reputation of innocent people who have “served the NBI with nobility, bravery and integrity.” ”The case of the missing Korean named Jee Ikc Joo was assigned to the NCR (National Capital Region where Diaz was relieved as the NBI regional director) for investigation on Nov. 15, 2016. I assigned it to Team 4 headed by Nestor Gutierrez with the directive to contact the wife and set possible entrapment since we were informed the Korean is still missing and there is a second demand for ransom,” he narrated. He said after the team talked to the wife of the Korean businessman, he was informed that the case was already investigated by the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group and a criminal case was already filed against SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, SPO4 Villegas, and Jerry and several others. “I directed the team to continue looking for the missing Korean. Then I have learned that SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel sought custody at the Bureau thru ARD Roel Bolivar, chief of the Task Force on Illegal Drugs. It was the agents under ARD Bolivar who took custody of him (Sta. Isabel) and not the NCR; as a matter of fact, I did not even try to talk to him,” he further narrated.