Duterte brings spotlight back on ‘shy’ Cebu trader
THE HEIGHTENED war on drugs has reached some of the country’s most impoverished areas, like this water tank in a Cebu City village that two drug suspects killed by police on July 6 had called home. TONEE DESPOJO/CEBU DAILY NEWS
CEBU CITY—It was not the first time that the name of Cebu businessman Peter Lim was dragged in the illegal drug trade.
Lim and brother, Wellington, had been subjects of an inquiry by the House committee on dangerous drugs after their names landed on top of the police watch list of drug personalities in the country since 1997.
“A Peter Lim was on my list that was provided by the Philippine National Police at that time. I don’t know if he’s the same Peter Lim alluded to by President Duterte,” said former Rep. Antonio Cuenco, who was chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs.
Dioscoro Fuentes Jr., Lim’s spokesperson, said his client is not the Peter Lim mentioned by President Duterte.
“We vehemently deny that he’s the same Peter Lim alluded to by the President,” said Fuentes at a press conference on Friday.
Lim, he said, is “very sad and really devastated because his name is again brought out into the open.”
Fuentes said his client, who owns at least five companies in Cebu, is at home in Barangay Mabolo here recuperating from a kidney disease.
The last time Lim travelled abroad, Fuentes said, was in August 2015, when he brought his ailing mother to Singapore for a medical checkup. He returned to Cebu two months after when his mother died.
Fuentes said his client is not the only Peter Lim in Cebu City.
He cited figures from the Commission on Elections showing that there are at least 110 persons named Peter Lim who are registered as voters in 2001.
“That’s a usual name among Chinese people. And we’re sure that my client isn’t the one referred to by President Duterte,” he said.
But Lim and his brother, Wellington, appeared in the House inquiry called by Cuenco in 2001 to help formulate what is now the Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002.
Two former employees of the Lims—Bernard Liu and Ananias Dy—testified against the Lim brothers during the inquiry, detailing the businessmen’s alleged involvement in drugs.
Liu and Dy then worked at the Hilton Heavy Equipment owned by the Lims.
Liu told the committee during the hearing that he was privy to the illegal drug activities of the Lim brothers because he was brought to Hong Kong three times, between 1989 and 1996 to get supplies of shabu.
Dy made a similar testimony, saying that Peter Lim was engaged in drug trafficking and that it was easy for his former boss to operate because Lim had contacts in the customs and immigration bureaus.
Cuenco said the Lim brothers were later cleared after the National Bureau of Investigation failed to validate the information against them.
“We can’t establish any case for lack of evidence,” Cuenco said.
After they were cleared, the Lim brothers filed libel charges against Liu and Dy and turned the tables on the witnesses, saying they were the ones involved in drugs as they had admitted in the House hearing.
A court issued arrest warrants for Liu and Dy but they went into hiding. Liu later surrendered but was released after the court threw out the drug case against him. The libel case was also dismissed.
In July 2006, Dy was shot dead by two unidentified men at the corner of Salvador and Katipunan Streets in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City.
Five years later, police found the decomposing body of Liu in his home in Naya Subdivision, Barangay Tangke Talisay City, where he lived alone, in September 2011.
A rope was tied around his neck and his body was soaked in crude oil.
Fifteen years later, the name Peter Lim would be mentioned again, this time by Mr. Duterte.
Fuentes insisted that Lim is not the same man referred to by the President, who had warned that if Peter Lim ever returned to the Philippines, he would surely be killed at the airport.
Fuentes said it is far fetched for his client to be killed at the airport “because he’s just in Cebu City.”
Fuentes said his client is not even facing any case in court.
But Fuentes said Peter Lim does not plan to meet with Duterte to clear his name.
“The Peter Lim of Cebu is a very shy person,” said Fuentes.
“I don’t think he has the gall to ask the President for a meeting,” said Fuentes.
Fuentes said Lim doesn’t know retired police general Marcelo Garbo that Mr. Duterte tagged as a top drug protector.
Fuentes admitted that Lim now fears for his life after Mr. Duterte mentioned his name and his face appeared in local papers.
“He’s anxious that there might be some people who will take advantage of the situation. There’s definitely a security risk,” said Fuentes.
Although there are no death threats yet, Flores said his client doesn’t want to take any chances.
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