DONG RAPE CASE JUNKED

Cebu-based businessman Kenneth Dong is now a free man.

This, after Judge Aida Estrella Macapagal of Paranaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 195 dismissed the rape case against Dong, alleged middleman in the P6.4-billion worth of smuggled shabu from China.

The case was dismissed after the complaint executed an affidavit of desistance stating that what happened between her and Dong was a mere “misunderstanding and misapprehension of facts.”

The complainant, also a businesswoman, withdrew her case against Dong “after soul searching and analysis of the incident” and that she backed off from pursuing the case “to achieve peace of mind.”

“Finding the motion to be with merit and without objection on the part of public prosecutor, let the instant complaint be as it is hereby ordered dismissed,” read Judge Macapagal’s one page order.

On Aug. 15, 2017, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Dong, one of the owners of Liv Super Club in Mandaue City, at the Senate after he attended the blue ribbon committee hearing on the P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China.

Dong is one of the alleged players in the illegal drug shipment.

The NBI said Dong allegedly raped an “intoxicated” businesswoman at a town house in Paranaque after they went clubbing on April 9, 2016.

The NBI filed the drug importation complaint against Dong, Customs broker Mark Taguba and 7 others before the Department of Justice in August.

During the Senate hearing on the shabu-smuggling incident, Dong clarified that he was only an “acquaintance” of presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, who is being linked to smuggling.

After the complainant withdrew the case against Dong, the public prosecutor did not object to the dismissal of the case, saying he could not prove the guilt of the accused without the active participation of the complainant. /