Judge asked to inhibit from Jee Ick Joo kidnap-slay case

Prosecutors from the Department of Justice have asked an Angeles City judge to inhibit from further hearing the criminal cases against the policemen accused of kidnapping and killing Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo in 2016.

In a Thursday motion obtained by the media Friday, the prosecution panel urged Judge Irin Zenaida Buan to recuse herself from conducting trial on the cases after she allowed the alleged mastermind of the crime to post bail.

Last month, Buan allowed Police Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Dumlao III to post P300,000 bail for each of the three cases, but rejected a similar petition by the two other accused — Police Chief Master Sergeant Ricky Sta. Isabel and Jerry Omlang.

Dumlao, Sta. Isabel, and Omlang face one case for kidnapping for ransom with homicide, another for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and another for carnapping before the Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 56.

In a 12-page motion, the prosecution said the judge "grossly misappreciate[d] the facts pointing to the culpability on the part of accused Dumlao and the conspiracy of all the accused in committing the crimes charged" and "completely brushed aside categorical facts and circumstances" testified by witnesses that Dumlao "was the mastermind, if not one of the planners" of the alleged acts.

"The Honorable Court has committed serious errors in facts and in law, which necessitate an unbiased reevaluation and a detailed reexamination of all the evidence thus far presented by the People to warrant a reconsideration of the grant of bail to accused Dumlao," the prosecutors said in the 12-page motion.

They argued that the order granting bail to Dumlao "is not only unfair to the People, it is also selective and smacks of discriminatory treatment to the other accused, who are similarly situated as co-conspirators."

"As such, the Presiding Judge should have treated them similarly and denied all of them bail. But she did not. She must therefore stand down from these cases and let another unbiased judge hear the evidence, without fear or favor," they said.

The motion was filed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera and Olicia Laroza-Torrevillas and Assistant State Prosecutor Ethel Rea Suril. — MDM, GMA News