No charges will be filed by the police against the Chinese couple who are being held for Wednesday’s shooting of three Chinese diplomats during a birthday celebration in the Lighthouse Restaurant in Cebu City.
“They enjoy diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention…immunity from criminal jurisdiction of the receiving state,” said Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, spokesman of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila.
Consul Hui Li, who was shot in the chest, is attended to by paramedics in an ambulance after the Oct. 21 shooting. She didn’t survive. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
He said the Chinese government will soon take custody of 60-year-old Li Qing Liang, whom police identified as the shooter, and his wife Gou Jing, a staff member of the Chinese Consul General’s office.
A gag order took effect yesterday as local police declined to discuss the investigation.
Police Senior Supt. Mariano Batiancela, Jr.(left) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) welcome the arrival of Hon. Qui Jian (center), Chinese Consul-General to the Philippines and his staff who visited arrested suspects Gou Jing and Li Qing Liang.
Neither would they disclose answers that Li gave during initial interrogation with the City Intelligence Bureau, with the aid of a Chinese interpreter, about why he fired a .45 caliber pistol at fellow nationals at the lunch hosted by newly installed Consul General Song Ronghua, 53.
Li and his wife, Gou Jing, will spend a second night in the CIB office in Camp Sotero Cabahug while arrangements are made for their flight to Manila.
They were visited yesterday by Chinese Consul General of the Philippines Qui Jian and another Embassy representative, who flew in from Manila. He brought them food and attended a closed-door meeting with Chief Supt. Prudencio “Tom” Bañas, regional police director, and representatives of other police units.
Bañas clarified that the married couple was “not arrested”, but just “invited for questioning” by the local police who tracked them down in the Chinese consulate office in Cebu Business Park right after the shooting. The couple immediately invoked diplomatic immunity.
“We have to review protocols here. There are bilateral agreements that we have to observe. The PNP is observing the protocols guided by the DEF,” Bañas told reporters.
According to Jose of the DFA, “Preliminary findings show that the shooting was an extreme act of a spouse of a staff of the Consulate General”.
A CCTV video of the restaurant showed the shooter, in a striped blue and green shirt, firing his gun as two women were running out the door. One of them, consulate finance officer Hui Li, fell to the floor with a fatal shot to the chest.
Arrested shooter Gou Jing. (Source: ABS-CBN VIDEO)
The shooter’s wife, Gou Jing, was described in some media reports as a “consul” but the DFA statement referred to her as a “staff” member in Cebu.
The wife was seen by witnesses picking up the gun from the table after the shooting and bringing it out with her. A security guard interviewed by Cebu Daily News said he saw the couple emerge from the function room after the commotion. The guard said the man handed a gun to the woman, who placed it in a paper bag, before they both walked out the restaurant.
“Upon the request of the Chinese embassy, they are being held by Philippine authorities in Cebu. The Chinese Embassy would like to take custody of them and they will undergo the Chinese legal process,” said Jose.
The DFA statement said Cebu Consul General Song Ronghua suffered “serious injury” but gave no details. There were earlier conflicting reports that he was shot in the neck or had a minor injury in his hand. Song and Consul Hui Li were brought to Chong Hua Hospital.
CDN learned from a reliable source that Song was operated on for gunshot wounds in the right forearm and neck.
Lighthouse Restaurant remains closed as the scene of the crime. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
During the commotion in the restaurant, he may have raised his arm to ward off the attack. The bullet struck his forearm and pierced the back of his ear, an area called the mastoid, and exited in his nape.
The injury could have been fatal if the bullet had gone through closer to his head.
Consul Zhang Chunhao of the Cebu Chinese Consulate confirmed that Ronghua had an operation on Wednesday night and said he was recovering. He gave no other details.
Murder victim, Sun Shan, the deputy consul general of Cebu, was brought in an ambulance to Perpetual Succour Hospital, where he died of a gunshot would in the head.
The male diplomat was described by Cebuano acquaintances as someone who was well liked.
“He loved Cebu and once told us he wanted to continue to live here,” said a female airline travel manager.
Another source said Sun was sociable and knew many people because he spoke English.
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