Hotel chain owner slain in Davao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines–A still unidentified gunman shot Richard King, owner of the Crown Regency chain of hotels and resorts, dead inside his office at the Vital C Building here on Thursday evening.

A report released by the Davao City Police Office said that King, 57, was about to take his dinner with some employees past 6 p.m. when he was attacked.

The gunman, who did not wear a mask, used a .45 caliber pistol in pumping several bullets on King – who also owns Vital C Health Products – before fleeing unmolested on a motorcycle driven by another man. There was no security guard manning the building, the police said.

A police investigator said they were having a hard time establishing the identity of the gunman, who was about 5’5” tall and was medium built.

The Vital C building had no security camera either, the investigator said, and they were relying much on information that witnesses had provided.

It was also learned that King had no bodyguard at the time of the incident.

The DCPO said investigators were not zeroing in on any particular angle at this time but King’s business deals were being considered.

King, whose company operates hotels and resorts here, in Cebu, Boracay and Makati, figured in controversies in the past.

Among these were his brush with a tribal community in Boracay over the construction of his resort hotels there; his 2002 accusation of irregularity against then Cebu Regional Trial Court Judge Agapito
Hontanosas for allegedly soliciting P250,000 for a favorable court decision in a suit he filed against couple Nelson and Lucy Go; his alleged involvement in the smuggling of decongestant drug pseudoephedrine – which led him to file charges against Sunstar Cebu.

King, a chemical engineer, also publicly accused a Cebu mayor of asking millions of pesos in bribe from a contractor.

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