Lim asks DOJ for separate hearing

Cebu businessman Peter Lim on Friday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hold a separate preliminary hearing for him in connection with the drug charges brought against him and several other alleged high-profile drug traders.

In a six-page motion,  President Duterte’s kumpadre (wedding cosponsor) told the DOJ that his legal defense “might not be given due attention” because of the number of respondents named in the complaint filed by the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

“Worse, [my] defenses might only be glossed over and overshadowed as this panel of prosecutors may concentrate on the defenses raised by the other respondents,” Lim said through his lawyers.

Constitutional right

Conducting a separate preliminary investigation for him would ensure that his constitutional right to due process and to speedy disposition of case would be protected, he said.

Lim claimed that the drug charges against him and the others were full of “muddled issues, unrelated testimonies and irrelevant and immaterial pieces of evidence.”

“From the foregoing, it is clear that a separate preliminary investigation against Mr. Lim will spare him from prejudice and confusion,” read the motion filed by his lawyers Magilyn Loja and Alex Francis Lopez.

Before he quit as justice secretary, Vitaliano Aguirre II created a new panel of state prosecutors to handle the criminal complaint against Lim and the others after another team of DOJ prosecutors had thrown it out for lack of evidence.

Public outrage

Besides Lim, also absolved were confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, convicted drug lord Peter Co, Lovely Impal, Marcelo Adorco, Max Miro, Ruel Malindangan, Jun Pepito and other personalities known only by their aliases.

The surprise dismissal of the drug complaint sparked public outrage, angered both pro and antiadministration lawmakers, and cast doubt on the brutal drug war launched by Mr. Duterte, who had named Lim as one of the country’s biggest drug lords.

It reportedly angered the President, prompting him to let Aguirre step down from his Cabinet.