Peter Lim appears at DOJ, denies being the drug suspect alluded to by PNP
WATCH: Peter Lim arrives at DOJ to subscribe his counter-affidavit. @inquirerdotnet pic.twitter.com/P4ujoMaEAw
— tetch torres-tupas (@T2TupasINQ) August 24, 2017
Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim on Thursday afternoon appeared before the Department of Justice (DOJ) and submitted his response to the illegal drug trade complaint filed against him along with convicted drug lord Peter Co and self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Lim appeared before Assistant State Prosecutors Michael John Humarang and Aristotle Reyes to subscribe his counter-affidavit on the allegations raised in the complaint.
Lim, in his counter-affidavit said he is not the Peter Go Lim alias Jaguar referred to in the complaint filed by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) and that he was also never engaged in the sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of illegal drugs as alleged in the complaint.
“This case should be seen for what it is—persecution based on malicious speculation. Since the complaint is based solely on the hearsay testimony of an incredible witness, and relies on sheer guesswork, I humbly implore his Honorable Office for a proper and careful evaluation of the evidence in this preliminary investigation, especially considering that the charge involved is a non-bailable offense,” Lim said.
“To reiterate, I am not the Peter Go Lim aka Jaguar who is named as one of the respondents in this case. Neither am I the Peter Lim being alluded (to) in media reports as an alleged big-time drug lord. I have never been and will never engage in the illegal drug business that destroys the lives of other people,” he added.
He pointed out that he was not a “China man” as reported but a Filipino who was born in Manila in 1946 and resided in Cebu for the last 70 years.
He said the confusion may have arose from reports that drug personalities have been using the name “Peter Lim” as their alias and that he even have thousands of namesakes in the country.
The businessman also dismissed the affidavit of his co-accused Marcelo Adorco who pointed to him as the one who supplied illegal drugs to the group of Kerwin Espinosa operating in the Visayas region saying his unsubstantiated allegations “are not only incredible and contrived but also purely based on hearsay evidence.”
The police said Adorco is the right-hand man of Espinosa.
Lim said he never even travelled to Thailand in 2014 or 2015 as what Adorco said in his affidavit where he and Espinosa allegedly discussed details of illegal drugs transaction adding that one can check his passport to prove this.
He said the date—June 4, 2015—that Adorco said they met in Thailand he was confined at the Cebu Doctors University Hospital for acute renal failure and diabetes mellitus.
“It was therefore physically impossible for me to have met with Adorco and Kerwin in Thailand,” he added.
He also said he could never be the “Jaguar’ identified in the complaint and identified by Adorco since the “real Jaguar’ (Jeffrey Diaz) was killed by the police in a shoot-out in Las Piñas City in June last year.
“Kerwin consistently identified Jeffrey Diaz as Jaguar. He never claimed to know me personally,” he added.
Lim said the hearsay nature of Adorco’s statements can be taken by the fact that his claims—he was only told by Kerwin that the delivery of drugs were by Peter Lim and that the telephone number given to him was that of Peter Lim and that he was informed that the person Kerwin met in Thailand was Peter Lim—were merely supplied by third persons and not from his personal knowledge.
Lastly, Lim said there is no credible proof of his involvement in the illegal drugs trade, evidence of the corpus delicti of the alleged crime in the case or even the amount allegedly involved or presented in the alleged illegal drugs trading.
He said these should be reason enough for the DOJ to dismiss the charges against him.
Earlier, Lim’s Magilyn Loja told Assistant State Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes that his client decided not to attend the preliminary hearing out of security concern. JPV
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