MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE) Justice Secretary Leila de Lima indicated on Wednesday that her fact-finding and investigative panel would have to check "persistent" reports that slain hostage-taker and dismissed senior inspector Rolando Mendoza was among the police officers who arrested the son of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim for possession of illegal drugs during a raid in 2008.

De Lima?s statement immediately drew a denial from Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Dionisio Santiago, who said the raid that led to the arrest of Lim?s son was a PDEA operation, which Mendoza was in no way involved with.

The camp of Mayor Lim, meanwhile, dismissed the information on Wednesday as "baseless and irrelevant".

Rafaelito Garayblas, secretary to the mayor, said the question posed by incident investigation and review committee panel member Roan Libarios of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to PO2 Dennis Rivera was ?way out of line.?

?As a lawyer, shouldn?t Libarios be at least aware that the Mendozas could not have had anything to do with the case of Mayor Lim?s son?? Garayblas said in a statement.

He said the question was better directed to the mayor himself, ?although it was hardly relevant or material to the issue at hand.?

At the resumption of the marathon hearing at the Department of Justice, De Lima asked broadcast journalist Erwin Tulfo if he knew about the purported role of dismissed Senior Insp. Ronald Mendoza in the arrest of Mayor Lim?s son, Manny, for possession of illegal drugs.

?Yes ma?am I did, but it was only now that I remembered it,? Tulfo replied, adding that he personally knew Mendoza as he had previously covered the Manila Police District.

De Lima said the five-member panel had been receiving ?persistent reports? that Mendoza was involved in the anti-illegal drugs operation in Binondo that led to the arrest of the younger Lim.

Interviewed later by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the justice secretary said she herself had been getting information on the matter from several persons she knew.
?We can?t ignore those kind of persistent information. It can help us assess the actuations and instructions of the mayor as chair of the CMC (crisis management committee),? she said.

Lim has denied there was a connection, saying in a recent ambush interview: ?That's not true,? although he did not elaborate.

Lim as Manila mayor also headed the local crisis management committee that oversaw the botched police rescue and assault on the bus seized by hostage-taker Mendoza on Aug. 23.

Garayblas said the younger Lim's arrest on March 14, 2008 by PDEA agents ?did not involve anyone from the Manila Police District (MPD).?

He also said the PDEA agents who arrested Lim's son had already been dismissed by the PDEA on extortion charges involving another case.

Garayblas said the issue was being spread around by individuals identified with Lim?s political rival. Lim is the subject of an electoral complaint filed by former Mayor Lito Atienza, who is protesting his defeat in the May polls.

The younger Lim, a businessman, was arrested with two other men on Espeleta Street in Sta. Cruz for allegedly trying to sell 100 grams of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) worth P600,000 to an undercover PDEA agent.

At the time, the mayor said he would not intervene in the case. He said PDEA chief Santiago called him up to inform him of his son?s arrest. ?I told him [Santiago], 'Congratulations to your men',? Lim said. ?'Treat him as an ordinary violator and throw the book at him.'?

The case against Lim's son was later provisionally dismissed by a Manila court.

Sought for comment, the MPD spokesman, Chief Inspector Erwin Margarejo said the public and media should not just believe rumors being bandied about. He said he was not familiar with the case but added that the PDEA should be able to shed light on the controversy.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer went to three MPD offices, including the District Tactical Operations Center and the Anti-Illegal Drugs Unit, on Wednesday seeking records of the coordination between PDEA and MPD at the time of Manny's arrest, but was told these were confidential and required clearance.

Tulfo was invited as a resource person in the hearing as he was able to interview Mendoza a few minutes before he purportedly shot the Chinese hostages at point blank range.