DID Wellington Lim, the man who survived an ambush six days ago, leave the country for Hong Kong?
Investigators of the Cebu City Police were now verifying reports that Lim, the brother of controversial businessman and alleged drug lord Peter Lim, fled the Philippines early morning on Tuesday (March 27).
Supt. Ryan Devaras, chief of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB), said solving the case has been hard for the authorities since Lim was uncooperative.
Devaras admitted this and other difficulties they encountered in solving the shooting incident, which happened on March 23 along Archbishop Reyes Avenue, Cebu City.
On that night, Lim and two companions were heading out of Infinity Bar KTV and Music Lounge, an establishment co-owned by Lim, when his black bulletproof Ford Expedition was peppered with bullets by a group of armed men on board a white pickup.
Devaras said that in the absence of formal statements from Lim’s camp regarding the incident, they only knew that Wellington Lim was inside the vehicle based on the media interview of Peter Lim.
“Statements from the media can be used as reference but police procedure should be followed. They have to give their statement, and we can investigate based on the statements so we can help identify the motive,” he said.
According to Peter Lim, Wellington managed to escape the ambush unharmed but was shaken by the incident.
While Lim and his companions survived the ambush unscathed, Wilson Bucay, a security guard of the establishment, died while three others sustained injuries due to the incident.
Clues from the car
Devaras said CCPO now has custody of Lim’s bullet-riddled Ford Expedition as evidence of the crime.
The vehicle is still being kept on the parking lot of Asia Premier Residences, a residential condominium at Cebu I.T. Park in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, where Wellington owns a unit and where he and his companions hid after the ambush.
“We only have the car and the copies of footage from the CCTV camera as to where the culprits escaped after shooting the vehicle,” Devaras told Cebu Daily News.
If the report of Wellington Lim leaving the Philippines was true, Devaras said the police would now have very little information to work on to solve the case.
For now, police investigators are working on opening the vehicle and checking what is inside and examine the trajectory of the bullets.
But Devaras said they could not open the vehicle just yet because they were waiting for the car dealership to confirm the name of the owner.
Devaras also told reporters that three persons went to see the car on Tuesday night (March 27) to have it “repaired” but police did not grant the request.