OSG submits more evidence in bid to nail Peter Lim, Kerwin

THE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has submitted various pieces of evidence to strengthen the government’s case against Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim, self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa, convicted drug-lord Peter Co and several others.

During Monday’s preliminary investigation, the OSG through Assistant Solicitor Angelita V. Miranda submitted a third supplemental affidavit of Marcelo Adorco.

Adorco was a driver-bodyguard of Kerwin Espinosa.

He was arrested on July 8, 2016 during a drug buy-bust operation in Albuera, Leyte.

He has been admitted to the Witness Protection Program and is the sole witness of the police in initiating the complaint against Lim and the others.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier dismissed the case, citing inconsistencies in Adorco’s testimony.

The decision was reversed by then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre following a public uproar and after President Duterte’s own outrage over the dismissal.

Aside from Adorco’s supplemental affidavit, the OSG also submitted transcripts of the 2016 Senate hearings on the investigation of the killing of Espinosa’s father, Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., and the 2002 House of Representatives committee on dangerous drugs report over the inquiry on the drug activities of Lim and his brother Wellington.

Also submitted was a certified true copy of the “blue book” of Bebeth Rebecca Diano identifying the personalities under Espinosa’s payola as well as the sworn affidavit of another respondent, Jessamin “Lovely” Impal.

The OSG also submitted travel records from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) which showed Adorco flew with Espinosa to Thailand in 2015 where they met allegedly with Lim; and the artist sketch and computerized composite of Lim dated August 29, 2017 as described by Adorco.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, who heads the panel of prosecutors conducting the preliminary investigation of the complaint, gave the respondents until May 15 to file their respective counter-affidavits.

Under the complaint, Lim and his co-respondents are accused of violating Section 26 (b) in relation to Section 5 (Sale, Trading, Administration, Dispensation, Delivery, Distribution and Transportation of Dangerous Drugs and/or Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals) of Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Lim’s spokesperson Jun Fuentes, reached for comment yesterday, begged off from issuing any statement as advised by their Manila-based lawyers Francis Alex Lopez and Miguel Gabionza.

Except for Lim, the others accused are currently in detention.

Earlier, Kerwin Espinosa’s father, Rolando Sr., was killed in a highly controversial police raid inside the Leyte Provincial Jail in Baybay City on Nov. 15, 2016.

The Espinosas’ Cebuano lawyer Jonnah John Ungab, also the vice mayor of Ronda town in Cebu, was also killed by an unknown assailant outside the Cebu City Hall of Justice last February 19.

Lim’s brother, Wellington, also narrowly escaped an ambush staged by unidentified assailants just outside the KTV bar he owned on Archbishop Reyes Ave., Cebu City on March 23. /with Ador Vincent Mayol