Choi Kyung Jin, the widow of Korean National Jee Ick Joo, and their househelp Marissa Morquicho at the Senate Hearing on Tokhang for Ransom. 蜜桃工作室 PHOTO/ ALEXIS CORPUZ
Was the maid of slain Jee Ick-joo involved in his brutal murder?
This possibility was raised at the resumption of the Senate inquiry into the Oct. 18, 2016, kidnap-slaying of the Korean businessman on Thursday when Sen. Leila de Lima disclosed that Marisa Dawis Morquicho, Jee鈥檚 maid, had a namesake with a kidnapping conviction.
De Lima asked the officials of the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation, which have clashing findings on who masterminded Jee鈥檚 murder, to determine if indeed Morquicho and a Marisa Dawis Calayan with a criminal record were the same person.
鈥淚t鈥檚 too much of a coincidence if it would be confirmed that they are one and the same person, then that鈥檚 another kidnapping case,鈥� she said.
Jee, along with Morquicho, was seized from his house in Angeles City in an alleged antidrug operation.
Unlike her boss, Morquicho was freed unharmed by police officers led by SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, the principal suspect in the murder.
Background check
Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao, chief of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG), said a thorough background check on Morquicho showed she was 鈥渃lean.鈥�
But NBI Assistant Director Medardo Delemos testified that the agency鈥檚 records showed there were three people bearing the name Marisa Dawis, with three different birthdates.
One of them had a record of a kidnapping conviction, Delemos said.
鈥淏ut at the moment, we can鈥檛 establish if the Marisa Dawis who applied for an NBI clearance was the same Marisa Dawis who was convicted,鈥� he said.
The only way the NBI could make this determination if this was the same person was for it to compare the existing fingerprints in its office and that of Morquicho, who is in the custody of the AKG, according to Delemos.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the committee chair, acknowledged that if it was proven that Morquicho and Calayan were the same person then this was something very substantial.
Criminal record
De Lima told reporters after the hearing that she had information that Morquicho had a criminal record and if it was proven she was Calayan, then 鈥渢here is a big possibility that she is part of a syndicate.鈥�
Asked if the syndicate could be the Korean mafia that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he was now investigating, De Lima said, 鈥淲e really do not know that.鈥�
At the hearing, Aguirre raised the Korean mafia link in Jee鈥檚 kidnapping.
He said he had received information that Jee had been kidnapped twice in the country by the Korean mafia.
He said he had talked about this with Jee鈥檚 widow, Choi Kyung-jin.
Aguirre said there was a theory that Jee was fighting the Korean mafia 鈥渁nd they hired the scalawags of our police agencies, from the NBI, to do Mr. Jee Ick-joo in. And from the looks of it, that was what happened because you just don鈥檛 kill someone immediately if this was just a kidnapping case.鈥�
Murder target
Dumlao also raised the possibility during the hearing that Jee had been a 鈥渢arget of murder,鈥� allegedly to keep him quiet, adding that the demand for ransom after his slay was just 鈥渁n afterthought鈥� by his abductors.
Jee, who ran a manpower services firm after working as director in a Korean heavy industries company, was strangled in his car and was later cremated in a funeral parlor owned by a former police officer and the ashes flushed down the toilet.
鈥淲e conducted intelligence validation, and what we see is that Jee聽 was already a target to be killed, not for ransom,鈥� Dumlao said under the questioning by De Lima.
鈥淭he motive was really to silence him,鈥� Dumlao said. 鈥淏ecause鈥攖his is (revealed) through an intelligence report, that鈥檚 what can only back me up鈥攂ecause of extortion activities happening in the Korean community, specifically in the Angeles [City] area, where the bulk of the Korean community is, specifically their online gaming operations.鈥�
He revealed that a Korean national,聽 Edward Yu-on, asked Choi for money聽 to negotiate her husband鈥檚 release with the PNP and the NBI.
Yu-on,聽 whose whereabouts are unknown, allegedly asked for a total of P800,000 from Choi.