DAVID Chua Lim Jr., who figured in an alleged road rage incident, failed to gain temporary liberty yesterday, and stayed alone in the detention cell for a second night.
The 28-year-old nephew of Cebuano-Chinese businessman Peter Lim, whom President Rodrigo Duterte accused as a top drug lord in Central Visayas, failed to post bail.
Assistant Cebu City Prosecutor Maria Theresa Casiño did not release a resolution on the frustrated murder and illegal possession of ammunition complaints filed against him.
His lawyer Orlando Salatandre asked the public not to quickly judge his client.
“Do not be too harsh in the guise of pursuing justice because justice is not only for the complainant, but also for the respondent,” he told reporters.
Lim was caught on video from a car’s dashboard camera shooting Ephraim Nuñal several times in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City last Sunday dawn. Lim’s girlfriend Takae Bacu Takahashi was also named a respondent in the frustrated murder complaint, but she will undergo preliminary investigation.
Casiño has to resolve other complaints that were filed before the filing of the complaints against Lim, radio DyAB reported.
“Our office, we would like to inform the public, does not prioritize just because of an individual’s position. It is a first-come-first-serve basis. If the case is filed before our office on a particular time on a particular day and it is first on the line, then we will take it first. There is no special treatment,” she said.
Salatandre was dismayed with the delay. He said Casiño gave two lectures yesterday.
For her part, the prosecutor said she already drafted her decision, but another prosecutor needs to review it before Cebu City Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas can act on it.
Casiño handled four complaints, including charges the National Bureau of Investigation 7 filed against three Romanian nationals accused of ATM skimming.
The information of the case will be filed in court, after the resolution is released. Only then can Lim’s lawyers post bail.
Casiño said the information will possibly be filed in court this morning.
On his first night behind bars last Tuesday, Lim was alone in the detention cell intended for women detainees. Police commandos in full battle gear were deployed inside Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
Police Regional Office-Central Visayas Director Noli Taliño and CCPO Director Joel Doria promised that no special treatment would be given to Lim, but some netizens said otherwise.
Nuñal’s camp pointed out that Lim’s escorts were armed with high-powered firearms, while the victim’s security did not carry firearms. Doria said the hospital where the victim is confined disallowed policemen to carry their guns inside.
CCPO operatives caught around 80 persons facing different charges during their One-Time Big-Time (OTBT) operations yesterday afternoon, but no one was placed inside Lim’s cell.
Salatandre said his client’s family offered P300,000 to anyone who can produce the full video of the incident, adding the footage did not tell the whole story of the incident that went viral on social media and placed Lim in a bad light.
Police, earlier, said the person who uploaded the video is one of their witnesses against Lim. The video will be presented in court.
Salatandre said the video that was uploaded on social media showed only a portion of the incident.
“Tulungan niyo kami na ma-produce yung buong dashcam footage. Kalahati lang ang pinadala, di ba, inupload (Help us in producing the whole dashboard cam footage. Only half of it was sent, uploaded)?” he said. “There are things to be revealed in that complete footage sa dashcam.”
Salatandre said he will withdraw as Lim’s counsel if the complainant’s accusation is true and there was no fight that ensued between Lim and Nuñal’s group.
“Kung maari huwag husgahan agad na pati nasa jail na, detention cell na, sasabihin pa may special treatment. Ang kulang na lang nito ay bitayin nato sa police station. Yun siguro ang time na masasabi natin na walang nang special treatment (If possible, don’t be judgmental so that even when my client is already in jail, or detention cell, you’d still say there is special treatment. They might as well want to hang him in the police station. That perhaps would be the time they could say there was no special treatment),” he said.
Lim spoke for the first time in public last Tuesday afternoon about the incident, saying he only defended himself and he had no intention to kill Nuñal.
Early this month, Lim’s father David Sr. figured in a vehicular accident that killed fish trader Philip Pogoy.
The younger Lim defended his father on Facebook at the time. He wrote: ““Well-off or less fortunate, car or motorcycle, an accident is an accident. Nobody ever intended for such misfortune or would ever want such a thing to happen.”