Cuenco welcomes move to reopen 2006 drug inquiry

ONE of the lawyers of Cebuano businessman Peter Lim said they were surprised by reports on the move of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila to look into the deaths of two witnesses related to a House inquiry in 2006.

Atty. Pedro Leslie Salva said the NBI’s plan is ridiculous because the case is a decade old and that his client is in no way involved in the illegal drug trade.

Salva, in a radio dyLA report, said there was no case filed against Lim over the deaths of Bernard Liu and Ananias Dy.

He assured that Lim is a clean and legitimate businessman and this was proven when he present- ed himself to President Duterte in Davao City to clear his name.

Salva said his client’s name may have been confused with the Peter Lim mentioned by a whistleblower named Mary “Rosebud” Ong, a former narcotics agent, during a 2001 Senate inquiry on the alleged operations of the Hong Kong triad in Cebu.

The other Peter Lim

During that September 2001 hearing, Ong denied that the Peter Lim she mentioned was the Cebuano businessman, who owns a heavy equipment firm.

Salva said Ong was referring to a former Hong Kong policeman named Peter Lim.

Former Cebu City south

But Antonio Cuenco, former Cebu City south district representative who chaired the committee on dangerous drugs that initiated House inquiry into illegal drug trafficking in 2001, says agency should proceed with its investigation

district congressman Antonio Cuenco, for his part, welcomed NBI 7’s move to reopen the investigation on the deaths of Liu and Dy, who were witnesses to an investigation on the Cebuano businessman.

In a separate interview with Sun.Star Cebu, Cuenco said the NBI 7 should proceed with the investigation to determine who was behind the killings.

“Let them proceed, anyway they have all the records of the case already. Our committee report has detailed all the testimonies including the affidavits as well as the transcripts of stenographic notes kay daghan man tong hearing among gihimo,” he said.

A certain Peter Lim was earlier accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of being engaged in illegal drugs activity.

Lim went to Davao City to clear his name, saying he was not the one being referred to in his pronouncements.

Lim and his brother Wellington was then the subject of the House of Representatives inquiry into illegal drug trafficking initiated by the committee on dangerous drugs that was chaired by Cuenco.

No further comment

Liu and Dy who testified against the suspected drug lords in the inquiry ended up being killed separately.

Cuenco said the voluminous report they submitted to the lower house after their inquiry can help NBI in pursuing leads of the case.

“Everything is there, the document will speak for itself. It will help them because it will clarify certain issues and it will provide NBI (with) a lot of clues and leads,” Cuenco said.

However, Cuenco said he will decline to further comment on the matter, adding that he will refer the NBI to the recommendations and conclusions they made in their report.

“Beyond that, I will not say anything anymore. I don’t want to comment further because I don’t want to preempt what the NBI will do next and what they will decide on. It’s enough they’ve been able to get copies of all the documents relative to the case,” he added.

Meanwhile, PDEA 7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz said whatever information they will get on Lim, they will give it to the NBI 7.