CURRENTLY the head of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine Development (DHRDD), Brigadier General Ronald Oliver Lee is a full blooded Ilocano known for being a well-rounded police operator since his younger days.

Designated to his current post last June 26, Lee, 54, is a native of Bauang, La Union, who took over as the DHRDD director seven months after he commanded the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group from August 2022 to January 2023.

A member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) ‘Tanglaw-Diwa’ Class of 1992, Lee, who will be retiring on May 5, 2025, gained prominence for being a nemesis of kidnappers, car thieves and other lawless elements in the past.

Lee is the son of a poor couple from Bauang, La Union who began working at a very young age to help support his family.

His mother is a plain housewife while his father is a tourist bus driver.

For his family, friends and colleagues, Lee is known as a man who always makes a big difference in every assignment given to him.

Born on May 5, 1969, Lee persevered to finish his primary education at the Calumbaya Elementary School and his secondary education at the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University before joining the PMA in Fort del Pilar in Baguio City in 1988.

One of the very few pure Ilocano-speaking generals in the 228,000-strong police force, the official is married to the former Ma. Clarissa Arcangel Tandoc.

The couple is blessed with two sons, Alvin Claron and Alijohn Abisjah.

Lee is known among his peers and subordinates as a ‘silent worker’ who gets the job done.

He has more than 18-year experience as an intelligence officer and ‘negotiator’ in police anti-kidnapping operations.

He became a Police Commissioned Officer of the Year in 2008 and 2011, a Civil Service Commission’s Lingkod ng Bayan Awardee, an Outstanding Police Provincial Office director and a recipient of the prestigious Metrobank Foundation’s Search for Outstanding Policemen in Service in 2008.

For his outstanding work, he was meritoriously promoted from PNP Senior Inspector (Police Captain) to PNP Chief Inspector (Police Major) and from Chief Inspector to Police Superintendent (Lieutenant Colonel).

He is also known for being one of the first members of PMA Class 1992 to be promoted to the rank of Police Colonel in 2014 and got his star-rank (Brigadier General) in April 2020.

Lee has the rare distinction of excelling in police operations and intelligence work without being assigned to any PNP Comptrollership or Finance positions since he joined the police force in 1992.

He is a recipient of more than 200 PNP medals and other awards and decorations.

After graduating from PMA, he joined the PNP Intelligence Group where he stayed for more than 10-years and helped neutralize dozens of rogues in uniform, New People’s Army rebels, local terrorist groups and other enemies of the state.

In 2003, he became the Chief of the Intelligence Division and later, chief of the Investigation and Case Monitoring Division of the now defunct Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER).

As a PACER officer, he led a number of major anti-kidnapping and manhunt operations which led in the safe rescue of kidnapping-for-ransom victims and the capture of notorious kidnappers.

One of the most prominent kidnapping-for-ransom victims rescued by Lee is Architect Ka Kuen Chua, who was held captive and treated like an animal by his abductors in Quezon City for 17-days in 2008.

The kidnappers demanded P30 million for the release of Chua until a PACER team led by Lee stormed their hideout and rescued the victim unharmed.

Chua was found chained like a dog and blindfolded during his captivity.

One of the kidnappers was killed in a gunfight while at least three were arrested and were later convicted by the court. Architect Ka Kuen Chua, shortly after his rescue, decided to head the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO) whose members are former kidnapping-for-ransom victims.

The MRPO since then has been a major factor in convincing KFR victims to ‘show their faces’ and be not afraid in testifying against their kidnappers.

As a result, dozens of cases handled by the PACER and later, the PNP-AKG, have resulted in court victories for the force.

As an officer of the PACER, he also led a massive operation to get the kidnappers of Kenshi Yu, then a 3-year old Filipino-Chinese boy in 2005, led by actor and former Quezon City Representative Dennis Roldan.

A PACER team led by Lee eventually rescued the kidnapped boy inside the kidnappers’ safehouse and arrested Roldan, who along with two co-accused, was found guilty of kidnapping Yu in 2014.

The three were sentenced to life imprisonment. Roldan and his fellow convicts are now serving their sentence at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.

Other kidnapping-for-ransom victims rescued by Lee and his men were Jacky Tiu in Pangasinan and a son of businessman Henry Chua in Muntinlupa City, His unit also solved at least seven other celebrated KFR cases in the early 2000.

Lee later joined the PNP Highway Patrol Group in 2012 and became the chief of the elite HPG Special Operations Division-Task Force Limbas.

As HPG SOD/Task Force Limbas commander, he led his men in neutralizing a number of notorious car thieves, hijackers and highway robbers in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

Under Lee, the unit smashed the notorious ‘Bundol Gang’ composed of the remnants of the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng Group and dismissed AFP/PNP members.

Their usual victims are tourists and “Balikbayans” who just got out of the Manila International Airport.

Lee also became an officer of the PNP Task Force Tugis formed to go after the country’s most wanted persons.

Among the most wanted persons accounted for by the TF Tugis during Lee’s time were Delfin Lee, a millionaire businessman accused of trying to scam Pag-Ibig taxpayers money and the Reyes brothers of Palawan who were charged for the murder of Palawan environment activist Gerry Ortega.

He also became the chief of the Regional Intelligence Division and the Regional Police Intelligence and Operations Unit of the National Capital Region Police Office.

The official also became a chief of the National Capital Region Field Unit of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and eventually, an outstanding Pangasinan Police Provincial Office director.

In October 2019, he became the Deputy Regional Director for Operations of the Police Regional Office 7 in Central Visayas before being assigned as the director of the PNP Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) before briefly heading the PNP Drug Enforcement Group in the same year.

In May 2021, Lee was designated as Cordillera Police Regional Office director.

As head of the Cordillera police force, he supervised a massive anti-criminality campaign in the region and went after partisan armed groups, particularly in Abra, to help ensure peace and order during the May 2022 elections.

His peace and order strategies in Abra forced partisan armed groups to abandon their plans or be arrested in checkpoints and other police law enforcement operations.

During the campaign period in 2022, Cordillera policemen under Lee neutralized an ex-Marine in a gunfight and forced the surrender of 12 other former AFP personnel composed of two Army Scout Rangers, one member of the Naval Special Operations Group (SWAG) of the Philippine Navy and nine members of the Philippine Marines, who were found to be serving as ‘armed goons’ of a mayoralty candidate in the town of Pilar.

Moreover, all efforts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF) and their ‘front organizations’ in the Cordillera region failed due to the ‘out of the box’ strategies employed by Lee.

Under Lee, the Cordillera police force made history by keeping the elections in Abra very peaceful.

In August 2022, Lee was designated as PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) director and went all-out against all wanted persons.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Alfred P. Dalizon