Taliño says Camp Crame handling Peter Lim probe

TALIÑO

AMID President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to conduct a thorough probe on Cebuano businessman Peter Lim, both the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) have kept their hands off the case.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of PRO-7, said they have not received an order from Camp Crame for them to investigate Lim.

“The investigation is being conducted by Camp Crame. Unless we are asked to help, we won’t take part in the investigation,” he told reporters yesterday.

Taliño said they are nonetheless ready to assist the Philippine National Police (PNP) if they will be directed to investigate Lim.

PDEA-7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz shared the same thoughts with Taliño.

“So far, PDEA-7 has not received instructions to investigate Peter Lim. But if there is a request, I promise to conduct a fair, impartial and an honest-to-goodness investigation,” he said.

Ruiz and Taliño said they are not monitoring nor securing Lim since they were not asked by their respective superiors to do it.

During the Senate investigation last Monday, PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said he informed President Duterte that the real Peter Lim is the same businessman in Cebu as testified by self-confessed drug lord Ronaldo “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr., the latter’s brother, and his driver/bodyguard.

In response, President Duterte told Dela Rosa “Trabahoa. Trabahoa. Kung mosukol, patya. (Work on it. Work on it. And if he resists arrest, kill him).”

Dela Rosa qualified his statement, saying what President Duterte meant was to conduct a case buildup against Kerwin, a process now being undertaken by the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group.

The PNP chief said he was not supposed to reveal in public what the President directed him to do, but he was carried away by his emotions when Senator Antonio Trillanes IV showed a picture of President Duterte and Lim who both stood as primary sponsors during a wedding at Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu province on June 25.

Lim, in an interview last Monday, said he feared for his life when he heard about the President’s order against him.

He requested authorities to conduct a thorough investigation to find out who the real Peter Lim alluded to as a drug lord is.

Lim personally met President Duterte last July, days after the latter publicly announced a certain Peter Lim. President Duterte earlier revealed the names of three big-time drug lords in the country: Wu Tuan alias Peter Co, Herbert Colangco alias Ampang and Peter Lim alias Jaguar.

According to the President, Lim was operating in the Visayas.

Lim said he supports President Duterte in the latter’s relentless campaign against illegal drugs.

He expressed hopes that he will soon be vindicated.