Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV plans to grill resource persons on the abduction and killing of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo regarding the P5 million ransom his wife paid his captors in exchange for his release.
Aquino on Friday (Jan. 27) said he wants to know who ended up pocketing the money that Jee’s wife, Choi Kyung-jin, paid.
“Hindi naming na-tackle iyan pero tatalakayin natin iyan sa next hearing. The committee should get to the bottom of this,” he said.
“There was a statement from the PNP na nagkabayaran sa mall pero hindi nila na-monitor kasi ginawa ng pamilya (ni Jee) na hindi nagsabi sa kapulisan,” Aquino added.
The Senate public order and dangerous drugs committee will resume its hearing on the case on Feb. 2.
Choi said she gave P5 million to her husband’s abductors last Oct. 31 even though they failed to provide her proof that Jee was still alive.
The Korean businessman was strangled to death inside a vehicle parked within Camp Crame on Oct. 18, 2016, hours after he was abducted from his Pampanga home.
Instead of releasing her husband after receiving the money, Choi said they demanded another P4 million.
Separate probes by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) point to the alleged involvement of some ranking policemen in the kidnap-slay case of the Korean businessman.
