Cebu City club owner to be invited by police

CEBU CITY — The police office in Central Visayas had taken interest in a Cebu-based businessman who had been linked to the smuggling of P6.4-billion worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) from China and planned to invite him for questioning.

Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, police director for Central Visayas, said the police regional office would just wait after the ongoing Senate inquiry to be finished before inviting businessman Kenneth Dong for questioning.

In the meantime, Espino said, he had ordered for a background investigation on Dong, including his businesses and financial connections.

“We were quite surprised to learn that Kenneth Dong is based here in Cebu,” said Espino.

“So far, the initial information we got is that he is the owner of the famous Liv Bar, here in Cebu,” he said.

High-end bar

Espino was referring to Liv Superclub, a high-end bar in Mandaue City that was reportedly owned by Dong.

But an employee of the club, who refused to be identified, said Dong was just “one of the partners” who owned Liv.

“What we just want was for our side to be heard and clarify some things being reported in the media,” said the employee.

Dong was identified by a witness during a Senate hearing as the “middleman” of Chinese businessman Richard Tan in the shipment of 604 kg of shabu that passed through the Bureau of Customs and was seized in a warehouse in Valenzuela City in Metro Manila.
The Senate is now investigating how the drug shipment made it past the Customs bureau and transported to the warehouse.

Port client

Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, police Regional Intelligence Division chief for Central Visayas, said based on initial investigation by the police, Dong’s shipments always passed through sea ports.

Dong was said to have started his business selling industrial weighing scales before venturing into a construction business and putting up Liv Superclub.

Cabal said Dong’s name had not surfaced in police reports on previous drug operations. But he added police were not discounting the possibility that the businessman has links with some drug personalities named by President Duterte. —With reports from Morexette Eram