Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Saturday said the emerging lead pointing to the involvement of a “Korean mafia” behind the murder of businessman Jee Ick-Joo was far out.

This as he cautioned the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in processing new information on the slay case, an incident that has prompted Malacañang to apologize to Seoul and suspend the bloody antidrug war to give way to a police cleansing.

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Lacson, who is in the middle of a legislative inquiry into the first high-profile “tokhang for ransom” case, was instrumental in initiating a joint PNP- NBI reinvestigation of the case after he noted discrepancies in results of parallel probes of the two agencies.

PNP and NBI officials are now being implicated in the Oct. 18 slay case.

READ: Bato: Rogue PNP, NBI members conspired to kill Jee Ick-joo

“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,” he said.

The former PNP chief, currently chair of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said certain leads from “sources” might be “ill-motivated” or from “intelligence analysts” who just want to get involved in the case. He said such information “could weaken the case.”

He shared that he gave such message to PNP Chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa and NBI Director Dante Gierran, who met in his office on Wednesday.

READ: ‘Bato’ tells PNP-NBI ‘syndicate’: Bring it on

“They should 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.

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He said both officials “unequivocally agreed to be very open with each other through designated lead investigators,” which are PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group chief Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao for the police, and NBI Assistant Director Ludgi de Lemos for the agency under the Department of Justice.

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