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Court orders arrest of funeral home owner tagged in Jee's kidnap-slay


A Pampanga judge has ordered the arrest of the owner of a Caloocan City funeral parlor which processed the remains of kidnap-slay victim and South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.

Judge Irineo Pangilinan Jr. of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 58 issued the arrest warrant on May 19 for Gerardo Gregorio Santiago, owner of Gream Funeral Services Inc., on allegations that he acted as accessory to the crime of kidnapping-for-ransom with homicide.

The court set the bail at P100,000.

Jee, along with his househelp Marisa Morquicho, was abducted from his Angeles City home by armed men allegedly carrying out an anti-illegal drugs operation last October 18.

Morquicho was later set free. Jee, however, was strangled to death on board his SUV while it was parked inside the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame.

Jee's body was initially brought to Santiago's Gream Funeral Services in Bagbaguin, Caloocan City before it was processed for cremation at the St. Nathaniel Crematory Services, also in Caloocan City.

Results of the reinvestigation conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) showed that SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, a co-accused in the case, asked Santiago in a telephone call to dispose of the body of Jee in exchange for P30,000 and a golf set.

"It is undisputed that the body of the victim was brought to Gream Funeral Services Inc. owned by Santiago. Thereafter, Santiago instructed his staff to have Jee Ick Joo's cadaver cremated immediately the following day, prepare the documentation and dispose of the ashes of the cadaver immediately after its cremation," the DOJ resolution stated.

"The series of acts performed by Santiago clearly prove his ultimate objective to conceal, destroy and dispose the body of the victim, one of the physical evidence needed to establish fact of death," it added.

Santiago, Sta. Isabel, former anti-narcotics official Supt. Rafael Dumlao III, Jerry Omlang and SPO4 Roy Villegas will be arraigned on May 31 regarding the killing of Jee.

Jee's death had prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to temporarily stop last January the anti-illegal drugs operations to give time for authorities to hunt down police scalawags.

The war on drugs resumed last March. —ALG, GMA News

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