TRIAL AHEAD IN CHINA

Policewoman (center) in plain clothes escorted arrested Chinese consulate staff Gou Jing (left).

The husband and wife implicated in Wednesday’s shooting of three Chinese diplomats in Cebu City will face investigation and a full trial in their homeland.

The journey home started yesterday when a police convoy left Camp Sergio Osmeña with Li Qing Liang and his wife Gou Jing past 6 p.m. to the Mactan Cebu International Airport amid tight security.

Chief Supt. Prudencio “Tom” Bañas, police director of Central Visayas, said the couple were on their way to China on a  9:45 p.m. flight.

He said local police turned over the couple to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) which facilitated the transfer.

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, in  a text message, last night said,  “A security team from Beijing is arriving in the Philippines to take custody of the two suspects.  Since they (the couple) have diplomatic immunity, they will be turned over to the Chinese side.”

SECRECY

A clamp down on details of  the movements of the Chinese suspects, including the presence of the Chinese Ambassador in Cebu and other aspects of the investigation, was part of the general air of secrecy that quickly followed the Oct. 21 shooting and left several unanswered questions for the host city in Cebu.

These include why Li, a 60-year-old retired consul general, fired a .45 caliber pistol several times during  a private birthday luncheon for newly installed Cebu Consular General Song Ronghua in the Lighthouse Restaurant in General Maxilom Avenue, and where he got his gun.

Song, who survived, was the main target of the attack but not the only one, according to sources in the local Chinese community.

After a heated exchange of words, Li, who was a guest at the celebration with his wife, left the function room, went to his car and returned with a gun.

Police officers in plain clothes escorted arrested Chinese consulate staff Li Qing Liang (face covered with jacket).

He fired several shots, killing the deputy consul general who tried to block his aim, and the consulate’s female finance officer, whom Li “chased” as she tried to run out the door.

Police took a “hands off” approach in the criminal investigation as soon as the DFA stepped in and confirmed that the Chinese couple had diplomatic immunity.

Li’s wife who works in the visa section of the Cebu Chinese Consulate, was implicated after she was seen picking up the gun from the table after her husband’s shooting spree and leave the restaurant with him.

The DFA described the shooting as “an extreme act of a spouse of a staff of the Consulate General.”

The couple was first brought  for questioning to the City Intelligence Bureau office of the Cebu city police on Wednesday afternoon.

An interpreter had to translate since the couple spoke in Mandarin.

“They were afraid to go back to China,” said a source who was present in the initial queries.

“They knew that punishment for murder in their country is the death penalty.”

At one point, the wife asked what would happen to them if they stayed in the Philippines.

They were told “the good news is that there is no death penalty in the  Philippines, but imprisonment for a capital offense takes many years (In Philippine law, a maximum of 20 years for a life sentence).”

The couple appeared calm, said the source, but Li looked “depressed” and the left side of his face kept twitching.

Police  kept asking for the motive of the shooting but Li and his wife would not give details. Neither did they ask for a lawyer.

SAME CLOTHES

The couple spent two nights in the CIB office and were transferred past noon yesterday to the Police Regional Office 7 in Camp Sergio Osmeña.

They still wore the same clothes they had on during Wednesday’s shooting.  A  Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) escorted them. A female escort covered the wife’s head with a jacket as they boarded city government L300 van. The husband followed with a male escort in a patrol vehicle.

The media were asked not to take photos or video.

The couple stayed at the office of Senior Supt. Bañas on the third floor, away from media exposure. Reporters and cameramen were asked to transfer to a building across the office.

At  4 p.m., the two Chinese suspects were moved to another office, where a doctor in scrubs and a white gown tucked in his arms was seen in the area.

FAKE GUN

Police are puzzled by the origin of the  gun used in the shooting.

The caliber .45  Colt Defender pistol has the same serial numbers as a licensed gun in Valenzuela, Metro Manila.The firearms office in Camp Crame interviewed the original owner, who said he had sold the gun. But the weapon was recovered and presented to authorities in Camp Crame.

The gun used in Wednesday’s shooting in Cebu City may be a fake or “paltik”, which would potentially make Li liable for violating Republic Act 10591 or the Firearms and Explosives Law.

Bañas  said he would be meeting officers of the DFA and Chinese Embassy but was tight lipped about details saying protocol had to be followed.

“That is not in our influence,” he said, “maybe we will look into that. I will be meeting with DFA officers who are now here in Cebu and we will discuss it members of Embassy of China.”

As to the motive of the shooting, he said he was “not privy to that as it is an internal problem.”

He said the police are guided by DFA’s declaration that the suspects have full diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution under the Vienna Convention and a 2009 bilateral agreement on consular relations between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China.

“They are covered with that. They have invoked it,” said Bañas.