Controversial former PNP general now Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot gestures as he answers questions regarding the anouncement of President Duterte that he is one of the PNP Generals involved in the illegal drug protectors in a press conference in the Governors conference room. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
CEBU CITY—Retired Chief Supt. Vicente Loot doesn’t only know Cebu businessman Peter Lim, they are compadres.
Loot said that Lim was godfather to his eldest son and the owner of the vehicles that Loot and other police officers used to borrow for operations in the 1980s.
“Yes, he (Lim) is a friend and my kumpare. But that’s it, nothing special,” Loot told the Inquirer over the phone.
He said he did not know if the Cebu-based businessman was involved in illegal drugs.
“I’ve no idea and I’m not the right person to say whether or not he’s into the business of illegal drugs,” said Loot, now the mayor of Daanbantayan, Cebu.
He said he hadn’t seen Lim since the 2000s although they kept in touch with each other through the phone.
Loot was among the five police officers whom President Duterte named last week as coddlers of drug lords.
The President later named one Peter Lim as a big-time drug lord operating in the Visayas.
No other descriptions were given by Mr. Duterte, prompting Cebu City’s Lim to issue a statement through his spokesperson that he was not the same person alluded to by the President.
Aside from Loot, also named drug coddlers by the President were retired Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo Jr., and Chief Superintendents Joel Pagdilao, Bernardo Diaz and Edgardo Tinio.
Garbo, who also served as police director for Central Visayas based in Cebu City, was allegedly the coddler of Peter Lim, alias Jaguar; Wu Tuan, alias Peter Co, and Herbert Colangco, alias Ampang, according to the President.
Co and Colangco are high-profile inmates now behind bars at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, while Lim was reportedly outside the country.
Co is reportedly the leader of Bilibid 19, a group of drug convicts living a luxurious lifestyle inside the national penitentiary, while the Lim Duterte mentioned was behind the illegal drugs trade in the Visayas.
Dioscoro Fuentes Jr., spokesperson of Lim, said Lim and his brother Wellington were linked to the illegal drugs trade in 2001 in Cebu City but were eventually cleared by the House of Representatives’ committee on dangerous drugs that conducted an investigation.
Loot recalled that he was a young police officer when a fellow policeman introduced him to Lim.
He said police officers, particularly in the Criminal Investigation Service (now known as the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group), used to borrow vehicles from Lim whenever they needed them for police operations.
Lim owns Hilton Heavy Equipment and Tiger Motor Sales in Mandaue City, Cebu.
When he had his first son in 1990, Loot said Lim was one of the baby’s baptismal godfathers.
Loot said he and Lim were not that close although they were compadres.
“I should say we’re only at the ‘acquaintance’ level. Apart from borrowing vehicles from him, I haven’t asked any favor from Mr. Lim. He’s but an ordinary friend of mine,” he said.
Loot said that he went to Camp Crame last Thursday to talk to Philippine National Police Director General Ronald de la Rosa and clear his name over allegations that he was a “protector” of illegal drugs groups.
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