Cabaero: Proper forum for Peter Lim

IT was a change in decision that President Rodrigo Duterte and Vitaliano Aguirre II, then Justice secretary, had wanted.

They got it when a Department of Justice (DOJ) panel ruled last Friday that Cebu-based businessman Peter Go Lim should be charged in court with the crime of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading, a “distinct offense” under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The panel of government prosecutors said the drugs themselves are not essential under this offense, and Lim’s denial he was alias “Jaguar” as claimed by witnesses is immaterial.

This ruling was a reversal of a first DOJ panel decision that looked into the case and cleared Lim and other suspects of drug charges last December, sparking public outrage and triggering demands for reinvestigation from Duterte and Aguirre.

The new decision was to file criminal charges against Lim, confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa and two others before the Makati Regional Trial Court. The panel based Lim’s indictment on the previous testimonies of Espinosa and state witness Marcelo Adorco during the Senate inquiry in 2016.

The panel said Espinosa’s naming of Lim as a top drug supplier in the Visayas and Adorco’s identification of Lim as one of Espinosa’s suppliers of dangerous drugs were “sufficient to establish probable cause to charge them with conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.” It added that the agreement to trade in drugs is the “gravamen” or the material or significant part of the complaint.

This decision made Friday was the latest in the Lim saga that began in 2016 when President Duterte named him in public as one of the country’s biggest drug lords. Duterte had threatened Lim that “he will die.”

Lim went to Davao and spoke with Duterte about his willingness to face trial as he denied he was that person involved in drugs. Duterte told Lim to submit himself to investigations and that, despite their talk, Lim was not yet off the hook.

Then came the first panel’s decision to clear Lim of drug charges, followed by demands for reinvestigation.

There was also an attempt on the life of Lim’s brother, Wellington Lim, that happened just after a similar attempt on Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot, another person tagged by Duterte as involved in the drug trade. Loot said he believed the attack was related to his being tagged as a drug protector, but investigations showed other motives to hurt the mayor. In the attempt on Lim’s brother, a security guard was killed and three were wounded. Police reports weren’t clear on the target, Lim or his brother.

The filing of charges should be a welcome development for Lim and his family as the court is the proper venue for him to declare his innocence. He has been denying the claims of the President and the police, now he has the chance to put it in the court’s record. It is the court that can put an end to this saga.

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