Choice of state witness in Jee Ick Joo case questioned by co-accused

The camp of former anti-narcotics operative Rafael Dumlao III, one of those accused in the abduction-slay of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo, questioned the decision of the court to make co-accused Senior Police Officer 4 Roy Villegas a state witness.

"Pinayagan ni judge 'yung pag-file namin ng motion for reconsideration, medyo weird on my part is that while pinapayagan niya 'yung filing ng motion for reconsideration, he also allowed Villegas to testify," said Arnold Valenzuela, Dumlao's lawyer, in the report of Cedric Castillo for "State of the Nation with Jessica Soho" on Thursday.

According to the report, Villegas named Dumlao as the mastermind behind the crime.

Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Irineo Pangilinan Jr. ruled in a January 3, 2018 joint order that Villegas has satisfied all the requirements to become state witness.

These requirements are the absolute necessity for the accused's testimony, lack of direct evidence for the proper prosecution of the case, and that the accused should not appear to be the most guilty.

The testimony of the accused must also be "substantially corroborated on its material points" and he should not have been convicted of any offense that has attained finality.

Earlier, Villegas was not allowed to take the witness stand as Judge Pangilinan suspended the hearing after another accused, Jerry Omlang, requested to change his lawyer to someone from the Public Attorney's Office (PAO).

The report said Jee's wife was also present in the hearing, but she refused to give a statement.

Another suspect, Senior Police Officer 3 (SPO3) Ricky Sta. Isabel also attended the hearing.

Jee was abducted, along with his househelp, from his Angeles City home on October 18, 2016 by armed men allegedly pretending to be carrying out an anti-drug operation.

The businessman was strangled to death inside the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame on the same day, his cremated remains reportedly flushed down the toilet. — Anna Felicia Bajo/BAP, GMA News