WHEN news on the attacks on the Parojinogs in Ozamiz City came out, the immediate response on social media was to ask – who’s next?
The name of Cebu businessman Peter Lim cropped up because he was among the high-profile Cebuanos who President Rodrigo Duterte linked last year to the illegal drugs trade. Lim had insisted on his innocence and talked with Duterte in Davao city last year to try to clear his name.
The raising of Lim’s name following the killing of the Parojinog family members was at that point mere conjecture until Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa himself said there will be more police action to come against suspected drug lords, and local agencies started checking on Lim.
The focus also shifted to Lim after the Department of Justice announced it had Lim in the airport watch list. Lim will raise an alarm if he tries to leave the country but Immigration officials cannot stop him from departing. There is no hold departure order for him. What was issued was an Immigration lookout bulletin order reportedly made last July 11 yet, almost 20 days before the attack on the Parojinogs.
Mayor Parojinog became the third mayor to be killed under Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs. Duterte named in August last year 160 officials who he linked to illegal drugs. Before Parojinog, Albuera town Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was killed inside a jail cell last year and, a week before that, Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan, a Muslim autonomous area of Mindanao, was killed together with his bodyguards in a road checkpoint.
Lim had been away from the limelight since his meeting with Duterte in Davao city last year and after he submitted himself for investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation on Duterte’s suggestion. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre even cleared him, saying he is the wrong “Peter Lim.”
It is to be hoped that the renewed focus on Lim and his alleged drug links would finally settle issues not only for him but also for the Cebuano community that had been wanting to see an end to illegal drugs.
The watch list order said Lim and seven others have to be monitored “in connection with the cases of 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 No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act filed against said individuals before the National Prosecution Service of this Department.”
It wasn’t clear though where the cases were filed and if these were already in court. And Aguirre, who earlier cleared Lim, was the one who approved the lookout order.
The case of Lim never left the Cebuano consciousness, based on social media posts on his guilt or innocence following Duterte’s pronouncements. The filing of charges against him and bringing him before investigators would finally move the case forward.