By ARGYLL CYRUS GEDUCOS
THE country’s top law enforcers are tracking down alleged drug lord Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim after a Makati court issued an arrest warrant against him for conspiring to trade illegal drugs.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) confirmed that the two agencies are now looking for Peter Lim to bring him to justice.
In a press briefing in Malacañang, PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Bong Durana said that the PNP has already formed a tracker team to find the alleged drug lord.
He, however, asked the public to provide any information which may lead to Lim’s arrest.
“We have tracker teams, actually, running after him. So that’s why we appeal to the public if ever you have any information that would lead to the whereabouts of Peter Lim, we would be happy to look into it,” he said Friday.
“We only have tracker teams. But if we pull our resources, the general public will help us, we can put Peter Lim before the bar of justice,” he added.
NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin also confirmed that the bureau is also working to catch the businessman who had already went to the NBI headquarters in Manila last year to deny allegations President Duterte made against him.
“The deputy director for regional operations Atty. Antonio Pagatpat already ordered all regional directors and district directors of the NBI to hunt down Peter Lim,” Lavin said.
“And also the deputy director for the Metro Manila units, Deputy Director (Vicente) De Guzman, has ordered the operating divisions of NBI to go after Peter Lim,” he added.
Meanwhile, when asked if Lim if still in the country, Durana said that they have no information that the former was able to flee the country.
Lim was one of the drug personalities who were initially cleared by the Department of Justice (DoJ) off his criminal liability in the drug charges pressed against him. However, last week, the DoJ reversed its decision and charged Lim with two counts of conspiracy to trade illegal drugs.
Malacañang lauded the decision of the DOJ to charge Lim, saying this proves that the government serious in fighting the illegal drug trade.
“Big fish or small, our war against drugs spares no one. It is a war that drug smugglers and traffickers are bound to lose,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said last week.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) earlier identified Lim as someone who has supplied “staggering amounts of shabu.”
On July 21, 2016, Lim went to the NBI headquarters in Manila to deny allegations that he is the same Peter Lim that President Duterte tagged as a drug lord. Lim had then promised his full cooperation in the investigation being conducted by the fact-finding team the NBI formed solely for Lim’s case.
Lim, along with his brother Wellington, were the subject of a congressional inquiry over allegations linking them to the drug trade in 2001. The hearing, however, was terminated when no evidence was found to confirm such claims.
