Cebu road rage suspect detained at police stockade

Road rage suspect David Lim Jr. shys away from cameras and hid himself at the comfort room of the Cebu City Police Office stockade where he is detained while waiting for the resolution of the charges filed against him at the prosecutors’ office. Junjie Mendoza, CDN

CEBU CITY – Nineteen hours after he surrendered, Cebu road rage suspect David Chua Lim Jr. was locked behind bars at the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) stockade on Tuesday night.

Wearing a blue polo shirt, black maong pants and sneakers, Lim was ushered into a newly cleaned detention cell at 8:46 p.m. where he would wait until the complaints against him were elevated to the court so he could post bail.

Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office, turned down the request of Lim’s lawyer, Orlando Salatandre Jr., that he be brought back to the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas where he surrendered at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, two days after he shot a nurse over a traffic altercation on Sunday dawn.

“Sa atin walang mahirap o mayaman. Lahat ay parehas. (For us there is no rich or poor detainee. All are equal),” said Doria.

Lim, 28, and scion of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese families here, was slapped with a string of complaints at the prosecutor’s office for shooting and wounding Ephriam Nuñal following a traffic altercation on F. Sotto Street in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City, dawn of March 19.

Filed against him were complaints of frustrated murder, illegal possession of ammunitions and a violation of articles 275 of the Revised Penal Code which penalizes any who “fail to help or render assistance to another whom he has accidentally wounded.”

Impleaded in the complaint filed at the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office was Lim’s girlfriend, Tamae Takashashi who fled with him shortly after he shot and wounded Nuñal. She remained at large.

Lim turned himself over to Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, PRO-7 director, past 2 a.m. on Tuesday, accompanied by his mother Bebong, sister, brother-in-law and lawyer Orlando Salatandre Jr.

He did not bring with him the .22 caliber gun which was used in shooting the victim. Salatandre said Lim panicked and eventually lost the gun after the incident.

“He must have misplaced it. Of course, there’s fear. It’s not easy to be in his position,” the lawyer explained.

Since the gun was not recovered, the police opted not to file a case for possession of illegal firearms against Lim even if he was seen in a video of the road rage incident carrying an unlicensed gun.

“For now, we don’t have the physical evidence which is needed in filing a case,” Doria explained.

From Taliño’s office, Lim was brought to the prosecutor around 3 p.m.

Cebu road rage suspect David Lim Jr. spends the night at the Cebu City Police Office stockade. Bennie Talisic, CDN

When presented before the prosecutor, the suspect chose to waive his right to a preliminary investigation which could have given him the chance to refute the allegations.

Salatandre said the best option for them was to immediately post bail and answer the accusations in court.

While waiting for Assistant City Prosecutor Ma. Theresa Casiño to resolve the complaints against him, Lim had to spend the night at the CCPO stockade where he will wait until the case was filed in court and post bail.

Salatandre questioned why his client was not subjected to an inquest proceeding—a mandatory procedure following an arrest.

“We brought him Lim to the PRO-7 for safekeeping. It has been three to four days now since the incident happened. A warrantless arrest is no longer available for the police. We went to PRO-7 just to seek shelter amid threats to my clients’ life,” he explained.

He also opposed the move of the police to detain Lim at an ordinary stockade of the CCPO and preferred to bring him back to PRO-7 where he stayed after he surrendered.

“This is not an ordinary case. There have been threats, and what is one night to let him just stay at PRO-7 to ensure his safety,” Salatandre said.

But Doria turned down the request to bring him to the regional headquarters.

Prosecutor Casiño asked Salatandre to put in writing his insights on the warrantless arrest effected by the police shortly after Lim surrendered. As to where the suspect would be detained, the assistant prosecutor said the arresting police, in this case the CCPO, had the discretion where to put him.