Rafael Dumlao, a former senior Philippine anti-narcotics officer, was taken into custody at a property north of Manila early on 9 June. National police chief Jose Melencio Nartatez said officers encountered him asleep and found a handgun close to where he was resting. Officials did not report any confrontation during the operation.
The arrest followed an unusual sequence of court decisions concerning the death of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo. A trial court cleared Dumlao of kidnapping and homicide in 2023, although two co-defendants were convicted. In 2024, an appellate court set that acquittal aside after concluding that the lower court had gravely abused its discretion. The resulting judgment imposed a prison term of at least 30 years.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Dumlao went into hiding once the Philippine Supreme Court affirmed the appellate outcome in 2025. Dumlao had served as a leading official in a police task force targeting illegal drugs, an organisation that was subsequently dissolved. Authorities are now examining whether other people helped him avoid imprisonment, Remulla added. No suspected accomplices in his flight were named in the arrest announcement.
Jee was seized in 2016 by police officers who portrayed their action as an anti-drug raid. According to Remulla’s account of witness evidence, the group sought money from the businessman, killed him by strangulation and had his body cremated before disposing of the remains. The killing occurred within Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Manila.
The crime became a prominent example of police misconduct during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug drive. Remulla connected Jee’s death to the latitude officers received under operations commonly called “tokhang,” arguing that operatives were able to act without lawful safeguards. Thousands of deaths were attributed to the wider campaign during Duterte’s presidency, which ran from 2016 until 2022.
Philippine officials informed South Korea’s ambassador and Jee’s widow that Dumlao had been found. Remulla also said the South Korean president sent congratulations to Manila after the capture.
The domestic proceedings against Dumlao are separate from the international case against Duterte. The former president was detained in 2025 and transferred to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, where a trial on the crime against humanity of murder was due to begin on 30 November.
With Dumlao back in custody, the outstanding issue identified by officials was how he remained hidden after the country’s highest court left the appellate judgment in force. Police had not disclosed how long he occupied the northern Manila property or announced a separate allegation arising from the handgun found there.
