Cebu road rage shooting: Victim still in hospital as suspect goes on Alaskan cruise

The victim who was shot in a widely-publicized road-rage incident last March in Cebu is still unable to walk after spending two months in the hospital. The suspect, David Lim Jr., was caught on a dash camera shooting nurse Ephraim Nuñal in the legs two times before fleeing the scene.

According to local newspaper Cebu Daily News, Nuñal is still undergoing treatment, while Lim is set to leave the country for an Alaskan cruise today.

READ: Philippine court allows wealthy road rage shooting suspect to go on Alaskan cruise

News website Inquirer.net quoted the judge’s order: “The crime charged against herein accused is not among those that affects the interest of the national security, or public health, wherein the right to travel could be impaired as provided under section 6, article 2 of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines.”

Lim is charged with frustrated homicide and illegal possession of a weapon for the shooting.

The Inquirer reported that Lim’s lawyers told the court that the family already booked a cruise tour from Alaska to Vancouver in Canada from May 29 to June 2, 2017 and would return to the Philippines on June 8.

The tickets for their trip had already been purchased last December 2016.

Nuñal’s lawyer, Mundlyn Misal-Martin, opposed the request and filed for the court to issue a Hold Departure Order (HDO) against Lim.

Lim surrendered last March 22 after his mother reached out to President Rodrigo Duterte’s aide Christopher “Bong” Go to get assurance of a safe surrender. Go advised Lim to surrender to regional police chief Noli Taliño.

Lim comes from a wealthy Filipino-Chinese family from Cebu and is the nephew of a suspected drug lord Peter Lim. He claims to have shot Nuñal in self-defense. “I fired a warning shot on the ground, as you can see in the video, he directly went to me so I just had to restrain him.. I don’t know what he might do,” Lim told reporters last March.

Martin said that because the suspect comes from an influential family, Nuñal is still being watched by a security detail.

She also said she is monitoring the return date of the Lim’s and would seek “assistance from proper authorities” if Lim does not come home from the United States to face charges.