MANILA, Philippines—Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim on Saturday said he would not lift a finger to help his son who was arrested in a drug buy-bust operation late Friday in Manila.

He said he would not even send a lawyer to his son, Manny Santos Lim, 44, a businessman, who was arrested with two others in Sta. Cruz, Manila. They were found with 100 grams of shabu, or metamphetamine hydrochloride, worth P600,000.

“If he violated the law, let the axe fall where it may. I only help those who are victims of injustice. That’s what I have been fighting for. The law applies to all, that’s my philosophy in life,” Lim said in a phone interview.

“He’s 44 years old, he should be ready to face the consequences of his actions. Let him suffer for his actions,” said the father who admitted that he and his son had not been on speaking terms for some months.

According to Lim, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Dionisio Santiago had called to inform him that his son had been arrested.

Relentless campaigner

“I told him [Santiago], ‘Congratulations to your men,’” said the mayor, a former police official dubbed “Dirty Harry” for his uncompromising stance against crime when he was chief of the National Bureau of Investigation.

During his first stint as mayor of Manila in the 1990s, Lim pursued a relentless campaign against drugs, marking the houses of drug suspects with red paint to shame them. He will be remembered for his mantra at the time: “The law applies to all or none at all.”

The mayor said he had no idea that his son was using drugs.

“I don’t know anything; what I do know is that he was having family troubles,” he said.

The younger Lim was arrested by PDEA operatives after he and his two cohorts tried to sell shabu to a police agent.

Manuel Lim was arrested at around 1:45 p.m. on Friday on Espeleta Street in Sta. Cruz.

He and the two others, identified as Joel Sabado, 33, and Ronald Pascual, 38, were arrested after they tried to sell 100 grams of shabu for P340,000. The current street price of shabu, according to the PDEA, is P6,000 a gram.

They were charged with violation of the illegal drugs law. Selling drugs is a nonbailable offense that carries a life sentence.

In handcuffs and wearing a dark-gray shirt, Manuel Lim and his two companions were brought before an inquest at the Department of Justice yesterday.

He refused to answer questions about the arrest, but when asked if he had called his father, he said: “No, I did not bother. I knew he himself would arrest and charge me.”

Old enough

In a statement, Santiago said the operation was a legitimate drug bust and was properly coordinated with the mayor himself and Manila police authorities.

“This is a legitimate operation without any political motive. We appreciate the all-out support of local officials like Mayor Lim,” Santiago said.

He said that Lim told him that his son was “old enough to know the consequences of his actions” and that the suspect should be treated like any other violator.

“Just do your job,” he quoted Lim as telling him.

Santiago added that the arrest of Lim’s son should serve as a “stern warning” to all drug offenders that the PDEA would enforce the law “without fear or favor.”

Arnold Carreon, PDEA public information officer, said in an interview that Santiago had informed Lim by phone minutes before the actual buy-bust took place at a dental clinic on Ezpeleta Street.

At about that time, Lim was speaking out against corruption at the Liwasang Bonifacio protest rally.

Santiago said the intensity of the PDEA’s antidrugs campaign in Manila was mainly because it was Lim himself who declared Manila an “open city” for PDEA agents.

“Mayor Lim was in fact one of our inspirations in intensifying the anti-illegal drugs campaign in Manila. It’s just so sad that, after a rigid casing and intelligence work, the target on the other end happened to be his son, Manuel,” he said.