Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking for businessman Peter Lim for questioning after confessed narcotics kingpin Kerwin Espinosa confirmed that the Cebu trader was one of his drug suppliers.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday said the government was building a case against Lim.
During a hearing at the Senate on Monday, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV complained that the Duterte administration was treating the alleged drug lord lightly.
Trillanes said that because a photo showing Espinosa and Sen. Leila de Lima at Burnham Park in Baguio City in November 2015 was being used as evidence of their alleged connection, photos showing Mr. Duterte and Lim posing together as godfathers in a wedding should also be treated the same way.
“If we are going to [resort] to guilt by picture-taking, then we already caught President Duterte because he is shaking hands with the biggest drug lord,” Trillanes said.
Aguirre said the DOJ was going after Lim, adding the National Bureau of Investigation had verified that the Cebu businessman was indeed a drug lord.
Earlier, President Duterte identified Lim as one of the biggest drug lords in the country and threatened to kill him.
Mr. Duterte, however, backpedaled when Lim met him in Davao City and explained that he was just an ordinary businessman and that the drug lord Peter Lim was another person.
Lim reportedly fled the country days after the meeting with Mr. Duterte.