Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña. (File photo by JUNJIE MENDOZA / Cebu Daily News)
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña on Monday said he never got a cent from any drug lord even if the late Jeffrey Diaz, alias “Jaguar,” sent an emissary to him offering money in the last election.
“I didn’t ask how much,” Osmeña said in a text message.
He said the emissary was an urban leader whom he presented as a witness to the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG).
“Druglord Jaguar was killed under my watch, same as druglord Yawa,” Osmeña said, adding that Jaguar and Yawa were the first two drug lords killed during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.
Yawa was the monicker of Rowen Torrefiel Secretaria, a Cebu-based druglord killed in Bohol in May 2016.
“Also, in my first 30 days as mayor, 9 of the top 10 drug personalities have been neutralized. My record can withstand scrutiny. It was not I who protected Peter Lim,” Osmeña said.
Peter Lim is a Cebu-based businessman accused of being involved in the illegal drug trade.
In a resolution dated Dec. 20, 2017, prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed the case against Lim.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II accused Osmeña of receiving money from Jaguar first in 2013 and in the last election.
Osmeña dismissed Aguirre’s allegation as a desperate attempt to divert the issue of meddling in the case filed by the Cebu City government against SM Prime Holdings and BDO Unibank. /atm