Lim’s camp expresses elation over drug trafficking raps
Cebuano businessman Peter Lim has expressed elation over the dismissal of the drugs trafficking charges filed against him.
In an official statement, Lim welcomed the ruling of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Task Force on Illegal Drugs.
“Mr. Peter Lim thanks the DOJ for rendering a just resolution because after all, the pronouncement of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II which found headline in Cebu Daily News on Oct 1, 2016, is correct,” said Lim’s spokesperson Jun Fuentes.
Aguirre earlier revealed that the Peter “Jaguar” Lim who is listed as one of the top drug lords in the country referred to slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz and not the prominent Cebuano businessman.
Jaguar, Central Visayas’ top drug personality, was gunned down by police in Las Piñas City on June 17, 2016, two weeks before President Rodrigo Duterte assumed his post.
Aguirre said there was a mistake in the July drug matrix released by the President.
The Justice Secretary said a cousin of Jaguar, Reynaldo “Jumbo” Diaz, who was arrested by police in Matnog town of Sorsogon in September 2016, confirmed that Jeffrey Diaz was the real Jaguar.
Fuentes said the case filed against Lim by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s Major Crimes Investigation Unit was solely anchored on the testimonies of Marcelo Adorco, one of an alleged henchman of self-confessed drug lord Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr.
Adorco claimed that Lim supplied narcotics in “staggering amounts” to Espinosa for more than two years. On June 4, 2015, Adoro said Lim allegedly met with him and Espinosa in Thailand regarding the delivery of 50 kilos powdered meth at the Cash & Carry parking lot in Makati City three days later.
But Fuentes said they were able to prove that Lim was not in Thailand on June 4, 2015.
“It was proven by Mr. Lim that, at that time, he was admitted for a kidney problem at the Cebu Doctors’ Hospital,” he said.
The DOJ Task Force on Illegal Drugs has dismissed the drug charges filed against Lim and at least seven others for failure of the CIDG to present sufficient evidence against the respondents.
In its resolution, Assistant State Prosecutors Michael John Humarang and Aristotle Reyes said the CIDG must refrain from filing cases on the basis “solely of an uncorroborated testimony of an evidently self-serving witness.”
“For if we would base our finding of probable cause on such bare and incredible testimony alone, we would open the floodgates to malicious and unwarranted prosecutions and in so doing, renege on our task to objectively and independently determine the cases that need to be filed in court and the persons who should be indicted for the criminal acts,” they said in a ruling dated December 20, 2017 but was released to the media only on Monday.
The resolution was approved by Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan.
As part of the procedure, the entire records of the case shall be elevated to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II for automatic review.
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