Testimonies of slain workers point to Peter Lim’s drug links

THEY may be both dead now. But the testimonies of Bernard Liu and Ananias Dy — two employees of Cebu businessman Peter Lim who were murdered separately years ago — continue to echo and speak volumes about their former boss’ operations.

In 2001, Liu told the House of Representatives’ committee on dangerous drugs that Lim and his brother Wellington were allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade.

“(They) got their supply of shabu from their contacts in Hong Kong and smuggled it through the Mactan-Cebu International Airport,” he said in a 2002 House report secured by Cebu Daily News.
Liu, who was employed at the Hilton Heavy Equipment in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, from 1980 to 1996, said he was tasked by the Lim brothers to meet imported cargoes and collect nightly income of all their nightclubs.

On numerous occasions, Liu said he accompanied Wellington to Hong Kong where they would communicate with their contacts upon their arrival.

“Thereafter, they would find a carton inside their room containing packages of white crystalline granules of shabu packed in transparent plastic,” the committee report stated.

“He added that during their trips to Hong Kong, they would bring back with them to Cebu City 10 kilos of shabu distributed among their luggage and golf sets. Upon arrival at the Mactan Airport, he claimed that their baggage was not subjected to a thorough inspection,” it added.

Liu claimed that the Lim brothers were also engaged in the smuggling of used clothing, used tires, canned goods, and appliances, brought in as misdeclared cargo and dropped in by ships to waiting pump boats.

The siblings, he said, also owned five nightclubs in Cebu but they were not listed as the owners in order to avoid being implicated in any court action. The nightclubs allegedly employed minors as dancers and entertainers and were used as places for prostitution, Liu said.

For his part, Dy, a bodyguard of Lim, testified that he was tasked by Peter to escort a container van to be shipped to Manila from a warehouse in Mandaue City.

He said he saw employees of a certain Ben Go packing white crystalline substances, which he knew as shabu, in a box that was about to be loaded onto the same container van.

Dy said the container van, which contained 48.25 kilos of shabu, was apprehended by the Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau in Manila.

When the committee on dangerous drugs conducted a public hearing for an act creating the Philippine Drug Enforcement Administration in 2001, Dy and Liu appeared and made the allegations against the Lim brothers.

A series of hearings were then conducted to validate the allegations.

Samuel Pedrosa, a former chief at the Mactan Airport and Seaport, concurred with Dy and Liu.

He said, in his testimony, that the luggage of Peter Lim would not pass through the X-ray machine of the airport and would instead be delivered straight to the office of the Customs police for pick up.

Blanket denial

When asked to explain by the committee, Peter denied all the allegations hurled by Dy and Liu.

He challenged the committee to clear him or charge him in court.

Peter then claimed that both Dy and Liu were just getting back at him and his brother for refusing to give them P200,000, the amount, he said, they tried to extort.

Dy and Liu denied Lim’s claims.

In its findings, the House committee on illegal drugs said Peter’s defense was a “mere blanket denial” which could not stand against the testimonies of the witnesses.

“The testimonies of the witnesses cannot be ignored as they appear to be consistent. Nowhere during the hearings did they waiver in their statements despite intense pressure,” the committee said.
The two witnesses passed the lie detector test while the Lim brothers did not take the same test.

“Peter Go Lim’s bare denials obviously cannot prevail over positive identification made by the said witnesses,” the committee added.

No action from DOJ

Former Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City’s south district, who chaired the House committee on dangerous drugs when a congressional inquiry was conducted against the Lim brothers, said they referred the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“The work of Congress is just to conduct fact-finding investigation. We forwarded the results to the DOJ which has the power to prosecute,” Cuenco told Cebu Daily News on Thursday.

Sadly, he said the DOJ did not act on it.

In July 2006, Dy was shot dead by two unidentified men at the corner of Salvador and Katipunan Streets in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City.

In September 2011, Liu was found dead in his home in Naya Subdivision, Barangay Tangke, Talisay City, where he lived alone.

A rope around his neck and crude oil poured over his body were the tell-tale signs of murder.

Liu’s body was already decomposing when police discovered the corpse at the back of his house.

“I’m really disgusted that the police did not even investigate the death of these two witnesses. The police did not do anything for a reason or another,” Cuenco said.

He said he was nonetheless happy that Peter is now facing charges in court following the testimonies of another set of witnesses.

“I hope this case would prosper,” said Cuenco.

Lim’s spokesperson Dioscoro “Jun” Fuentes said the allegations in the committee report against the Lim brothers were nothing but old claims.

“Those were old allegations,” he said as he dismissed allegations linking the Lims to the narcotics trade.