First time for Peter Lim

APALISOK

When Cebuano businessman Peter Lim submits himself next week to the preliminary investigation relative to the case for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading filed by the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP–CIDG) in Manila, it will be worth watching if he sticks to the “mistaken identity” line to clear his name.

There are hundreds of Peter Lims in Cebu and thousands more throughout the country, Mr. Lim told police authorities after he was tagged by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte in July last year as one of the country’s topmost drug lords.

The Cebuano businessman is correct to point out that he has thousands of namesakes, but he is the only Peter Lim hounded by drug-related controversies for the past 20 years during which no criminal case has been filed against him. In other words, the July 5 complaint filed by the CIDG Major Crimes Investigation Unit against Peter Lim for violation of Section 26(b) of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2000 is the first time for the Cebuano businessman.

I have always argued that if the PNP intends to resolutely deal with the national drug problem, the agency will have to revisit the legislative investigations of 1997 and 2001 because it will shed light on the drug syndicate within the police agency and perhaps give justice to the deaths of two state witnesses. The separate probes were initiated by then Cebu City congressman Antonio Cuenco who chaired the House committee on dangerous drugs.

The trigger for the 1997 probe was the dossier provided by then regional anti-narcotics chief Jose Dayco who tagged 240 alleged drug lords including businessmen Peter and Wellington Lim. Nothing came out of the exposé because the police info was supposedly raw or unverified. A year later, the police came up with an updated dossier containing the identities of 50 drug groups in the region, but this time, the list contained only Bisaya-sounding names. What made the list even more interesting is that the names of the Lim brothers were no longer in the order of battle.

That would have been the end of Cuenco’s efforts to get to the bottom of the drug problem except that in 2001, Ananias Dy and Bernard Liu, two former employees of the Lim brothers, went to the House panel to share information about alleged drug dealings of their former employers. As we all know, Ananias Dy and Bernard Liu died in tragic circumstances resembling the fate of those who break the mafia code of silence or omertà.

In any case, I heard comments that the case filed by CIDG versus Peter Lim on the basis of the affidavit of a certain Marcelo Adorco, who was arrested in a police sting operation last year, looks haphazardly prepared.

Pundits are saying that without any direct evidence, the case is weak and will be eventually dropped. Despite what appears to be a legal advantage, reports say Mr. Lim has surrounded himself with bodyguards, who are allegedly rogue policemen and members of the military discharged from the service.

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Cheers to Cebu’s charismatic couple, Nonito and Diana Limchua, who marked their golden wedding anniversary last July 30 with a heartfelt Eucharistic celebration at the San Pedro Calungsod Church followed by an intimate reception at the Radisson Blu.

Tatay Dodong and Nanay Diane — as they are fondly called by family, friends, employees and members of the Oasis of Love charismatic community in Cebu — are well loved and respected by the Catholic hierarchy that it was not surprising to find a bevy of bishops and priests from the local and neighboring dioceses attending the Limchua milestone on a Sunday. Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma led the mass celebration while the couple’s nephew, Fr. Jan Tomas Limchua, executive secretary to the Papal Nuncio in Egypt, gave the homily.

A few days before D-Day, I had the occasion to speak with Nanay Diane and got to ask her about staying married in the context of today’s freewheeling lifestyle.

Tatay Dodong and Nanay Diane were married in 1967 and like ordinary couples, experienced good and bad patches along the way.

However, because Tatay Dodong had a love for the things of the world, their relationship soured and led to their financial ruin. Nanay Diane said that each time she finds out about her husband’s womanizing, she would hatch a plan to take revenge and leave him for good, but she would end up praying and accepting her lot, leaving everything up to God through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

While in the US in 1994, Tatay Dodong suffered from a heart attack. At the hospital fighting for his life, he had a spiritual experience that changed his and Nanay Diane’s life forever.

As servant leaders of the Oasis of Love Community which counts for tens of thousands of members scattered all over the Visayas and Mindanao, the couple shares their personal ups and downs to people attending spiritual retreats.

It is in this context that Nanay Diane thinks the rocky patches in their married life was all part of God’s plan to prepare them for the ministry. “How can we counsel to couples in distress if we can’t relate to their problems?” she pointed out.

Her advice to married couples, “Don’t be anxious by the trials that come your way. God has a purpose for everything.”