MAKATI COURT ORDERS ARREST OF PETER LIM ON DRUG RAP

The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Tuesday found probable cause to hold businessman Peter Go Lim, confessed drug kingpin Kerwin Espinosa and their cohorts for trial for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.

Makati RTC Branch 65 acting Presiding Judge Gina BibatPalamos also issued an arrest warrant for the Cebu-based Lim, who had previously been cleared for the charges by a first Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecution panel.

Palamos set the arraignment of Espinosa, Lim, Marcelo Adorco and Ruel Malindangan on Aug. 28.

The Makati court’s order upheld the findings of a second set of DOJ prosecutors, which released a resolution on Aug. 10 that reversed the first DOJ panel’s initial decision.

Backlash

That panel’s resolution, which was not made public until March, prompted searing backlash and ultimately led to the resignation of then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II in early April.

The new panel, composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera, Anna Noreen Devanadera and Prosecution Attorney Herbert Calvin Abugan, had partly based its decision finding probable cause against Lim on Espinosa’s testimony to the Senate committees on justice and on public order.

The panel also said that Adorco had positively identified Lim as one of Espinosa’s drug suppliers.

Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde had said on Monday that if a court issued an arrest warrant for Lim, “the whole PNP actually is ready” to arrest him.

In Cebu City, Lim’s spokesperson, Dioscoro Fuentes, ex- pressed dismay over the court decision.

“All along, I was thinking that the first dismissal of this case will be sustained by the prosecutors because there was already a pronouncement (that there was no sufficient evidence against him),” he told the Inquirer.

“And here comes his indictment and order of arrest. I don’t think there’s something we can do about that,” he said.

Asked whether Lim would surrender, Fuentes said: “He’s my boss. Whatever his decision is, then that’s it.”

Fuentes said he believed that Lim was still in Cebu.

“I have not seen him or even talked to him through the phone [for] a month now. But I think he’s still here. I don’t think he left the country,” he said.

Fuentes said he was hoping that Lim would be eventually cleared of the drug charges filed against him.

Hold order

“That’s why the court is there to determine the truth,” he said.

“We’re sad with what’s happening now. I think it’s a natural feeling ... Anybody who experiences what we [are going through] now will share the same emotion,” Fuentes added.

The DOJ panel had asked the Makati RTC on Monday to issue a hold departure order against Lim should he try to leave the country.

President Duterte publicly called out Lim in 2016, alleging that he was one of the biggest drug dealers in the country. The businessman, who owns Hilton Heavy Equipment, among others, had been investigated by the House of Representatives in 2006, also for illegal drug trading.

Espinosa, Adorco and Malindangan are facing additional cases for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trade at the Makati and Manila RTCs, together with Lovely Impal and convicted drug lord Peter Co.