Duterte got his Lims wrong, says Aguirre

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said yesterday President Duterte made a mistake when he pointed to Cebuano businessman Peter Lim as the  “Peter Lim” referred to in a drug matrix presented to the media in July.

That “Peter Lim” was a drug lord slain by authorities a month earlier, he said.

In a news conference in Manila on Friday, Aguirre said there was a mistake in the drug matrix presented by the President in July.

He said the Peter “Jaguar” Lim in the matrix was actually Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz, said to be the top drug lord in Central Visayas who was killed by police in an alleged shoot-out in Las Piñas City on June 19.

“Baka mali ang pagkasabi kasi talagang patay na (Perhaps there was a mistake because he’s really dead). By the time the drug matrix came out, Jaguar was already dead…It happened on June 19 before the President assumed office,” Aguirre said in a press conference aired over GMA News Online.

Aguirre said a relative of Diaz, who surrendered to authorities after the drug lord was killed, confirmed that the slain drug lord was the real Jaguar.

He was referring to Jaguar’s cousin, Reynaldo “Jumbo” Diaz, who was arrested by police in Matnog, Sorsogon, last Sept. 17 when six armed personnel of  the Department of Justice and the police swooped down on his hideout to serve warrants for the violation of dangerous drugs act and for frustrated murder.

Police said Reynaldo took over Diaz’s operation after he was killed in June.

In a news conference, Aguirre clarified that Reynaldo was a state witness under the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program.

Although Lim was not the Peter Lim in the matrix, Aguirre said the National Bureau of Investigation would continue to investigate the businessman for any involvement in illegal drugs.

“Maaaring kapangalan lang niya pero drug lord din siya (There’s a possibility they have the same name but he’s also a drug lord),” he said.

But it was enough to make Lim’s lawyer, Pedro Leslie Salva, happy.

“Very good,” he said in a phone interview.

“I knew from the start that the truth will set us free. I pity his family. It’s definitely not easy to be accused of something you never committed,” he said.