GUNNED DOWN

Lighthouse Restaurant along Mango Ave., Cebu City is temporarily closed to the public, following a shooting incident around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Heated words in a birthday celebration yesterday ended in gunshots that wounded Cebu Chinese Consul Song Ronghua and killed two members of his staff.

Police are looking into a possible grudge attack behind the shooting, which took place about 1:30 p.m. in Lighthouse Restaurant in General Maxilom  Avenue in Cebu City.

Ronghua, who just started his posting in Cebu this month, was wounded in his hand. He was celebrating his birthday in a private function room with about ten guests.

Chinese national Li Qing Liang, 60,  took out a .45 caliber pistol and fired shots, killing deputy consulate officer Sun Shan and the consulate’s female finance officer, Hui Li.  They succumbed to shots in the head or neck.

Police later arrested Li and his 57-year-old wife Gou Jing at the Chinese consulate office at the Cebu Business Park, where the wife works. Both had attended the party and were seen hurriedly leaving.

The couple was being interrogated yesterday by the City Intelligence Branch of the Cebu city police with the aid of a Chinese interpreter.

“Based on the statements of the witnesses and the closed-circuit TV footage which showed the shooting, we are certain that the one who shot Hui Li was the male suspect,” said Supt. Romeo Santander, chief of the Cebu City police intelligence branch.

Santander said a heated argument preceded the violence but the conversation was in Chinese, and police still had to find out what it was about.

The motive for the attack can only be answered by Li.

“He’s the silent type, very sensitive and a loner,”  said a source in the Chinese business community, who asked not to be named.

CCTV FOOTAGE

A clip of the closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage taken inside the function room showed some women running to the door.   Li  in a striped blue and green shirt, held up a gun and fired.

A woman in front of him, who turned out to be the consulate’s finance officer, had her back to the man. She was shot in the head at close range and fell face down on the floor.

Arrested shooter Li Qing Liang. (Source: ABS-CBN VIDEO)

Another clip showed Li calmly approach the bleeding woman then move away.

Ronnie Dacua, a security guard of the Golden Dragon Security Agency, said he saw the couple, later identified as Li and his wife, emerge from the function room.

He said the man handed a handgun to the woman, who placed it in a paper bag.  Then the couple left the restaurant and crossed the street.

Jimmy Dichos, 34, a blind singer,  told Cebu Daily News he was singing “Happy Birthday” for for the guests with his blind companion playing the ukele.

“Nakadungog nalang mig buto-buto og plato nga nangabuak. Naay sige singgit nga manduko na lang mi; wa mi kahibaw unsay buhaton (We heard gunfire and plates crashing.  Someone kept shouting for to us to duck. We didn’t know what to do),” said Dichos.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) declined to comment on the incident until an official police report is completed.

The sight of wounded people being transported outside the restaurant  past noon caused traffic to build up on General Maxilom Avenue.

Councilor Dave Tumulak said city ambulances were used to transport the victims to Chong Hua Hospital and Perpetual Succour Hospital.

Police sealed off the restaurant, which serves Filipino dishes.

When police arrested them, Li wore a striped blue and green shirt while his wife Jing wore a floral shirt, the same clothes they were seen wearing in the CCTV footage.

They were both interrogated in the police office in Camp Sotero Cabahug.

Agents of the regional National Bureau of Investigation (NBI-7) dropped by to get updates.

Santander refused to elaborate on the case, saying the police had to follow protocol in dealing with the case involving high-profile persons. He said the case is “a matter of national security.”