Narcs dared to prove Peter Lim’s links to drugs

CEBU CITY—The lawyer of a businessman here being linked to the illegal drug trade dared authorities to prove the involvement of his client in drug trafficking, saying the businessman is under no obligation to prove his innocence.

Laywer Pedro Leslie Salva made the statement in reaction to a confirmation made by Isidro Lapeña, director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), that Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim is the same Peter Lim that is on the PDEA watch list of drug suspects.

“Let them prove it,” said Salva. “It’s not our obligation to prove the innocence of my client because the Constitution says anyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” said the lawyer.

He said he is puzzled by Lapeña’s insistence in linking Lim and why the PDEA chief is doing it now.

“Where was he (Lapeña) during the time of P-Noy? Why didn’t he mention it?” Salva said.

Salva said even Mr. Duterte admitted that there was no evidence linking Lim in the illegal drug trade.

“That’s more than enough to prove what I’m talking about, and I don’t think the President is irresponsible enough to make such a statement,” said Salva.

In an interview over ABS-CBN’s late evening newscast, Bandila, on Thursday, Lapeña said the businessman was on the PDEA’s target list.

Lapeña, however, said PDEA agents could not arrest Lim in the absence of a warrant.

Yogi Filemon Ruiz, PDEA director for Central Visayas, said he had heard about Lim’s alleged involvement in illegal drugs since the early 2000s when the businessman and his brother, Wellington, were subjects of a congressional inquiry after their names landed on top of the police watch list of drug personalities in the country.

“I’m not new in my job and this is not the first time I heard about him (Cebu’s Peter Lim),” said Ruiz.

When he assumed his post as PDEA Central Visayas chief on Thursday, Ruiz showed reporters a folder that contains the names of top drug personalities in Cebu and other parts of Central Visayas.

Its contents were kept confidential.

But Ruiz said Lim is not among those that the regional PDEA is pursuing.

“What I have are the names of new top drug personalities in the cities and provinces in Central Visayas,” he said.

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