Businessman Kenneth Dong. FILE PHOTO
Businessman Kenneth Dong, through his counsel Atty. Karla Denise Frias, maintained his innocence on the rape allegation hurled against him.
Dong has been arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after the Senate hearing on the shipment of over P6-billion worth of shabu because he had a pending warrant of arrest issued by the Paranaque Regional Trial Court Branch 195 over the rape case.
“He is a victim of circumstance. He is not even evading arrest. He was there at the Senate hearing,” Frias told reporters at a press conference.
Dong is a witness in the congressional inquiry being the alleged middleman for the shipment of the 604 kilos of shabu. He was presented to the media by the NBI upon his arrest.
NBI Deputy Director for Intelligence Vicente De Guzman said they have discovered the pending warrant of arrest after they conducted a background check on the personalities linked to the shabu shipment.
“Considering that Kenneth Dong is one of the resource person at the Senate, we conducted a [background] check and we found out that he has a pending warrant for his arrest,” De Guzman said.
Dong will be detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the NBI would inform the court about Dong’s arrest.
“If there are further proceedings, then the Senate has to address subpoena to the NBI,” Aguirre said at a press conference.
Aguirre said there would not be a problem should Dong be called in for a probe.
“If there’s still further proceedings in Senate, then the Senate will just address the subpoena to whoever is holding him in detention,” Aguirre said.
Dong is also one of the respondents in the drug trafficking charges filed by NBI before the Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with the P6.4 billion shabu seized last May 26 in two warehouses in Valenzuela City.