Senator Ping Lacson during the Senate Hearing on the murder of Korean National Jee Ick Joo. INQUIRER PHOTO/ ALEXIS CORPUZ/ INQUIRER PHOTO
Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Saturday said he had advised the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to treat any information that a “Korean mafia” was behind the murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo carefully, saying the new angle appeared farfetched.
“If we go by the evidence at hand, the Korean mafia angle is quite a stretch,” Lacson told the Inquirer in a text message. “Having said that, the combined PNP and NBI probers should be very careful in processing information that have suddenly sprouted from various sources.”
The former PNP chief said certain leads from “sources” might be “ill-motivated.” He said such information “could weaken the case.”
Lacson said that in a meeting at his office on Wednesday, he told PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa and NBI Director Dante Gierran to “work closely together and consolidate all the pieces of evidence, and not be affected by intrigues and disinformation.”
“I told them, the most embarrassing scenario to happen in this case is a dismissal by the court due to conflicting theories and uncoordinated presentation of evidence,” he said.
Lacson heads the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, which opened an inquiry into the killing of Jee by a group of police antinarcotics officers.
