(Eagle News) –Businessman and alleged drug trafficker Peter Lim has asked the Department of Justice to conduct a preliminary investigation into the drug charges filed against him separate from the one conducted for his co-respondents.
Apart from Lim, self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa, Lovely Impal, Peter Co, and several others have been accused by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of conspiring to sell, transport and trade shabu.
In an ad cautelam motion dated April 5, Lim, through his lawyers, said this was “in order to prevent undue prejudice” to him, considering that he was being charged with a non-bailable offense.
According to Lim, he was “concerned that his defenses and the obvious lack of evidence against him might not be given due attention in view of the number of respondents and transactions involved in the case.”
He said “worse, (my) defenses might only be glossed over and overshadowed as this panel of prosecutors may concentrate on the defenses raised by other respondents.”
“Necessarily, the pieces of evidence that may be presented to the prove the ‘Kerwin – Peter Co drug transactions’ are irrelevant and immaterial in proving the alleged ‘Kerwin – Peter Lim’ transactions, which supposedly occurred on different dates and locations,” Lim said.
A first Department of Justice panel of prosecutors dismissed the cases against them, citing what it said was a “dearth of evidence.”
But then-Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre declared “moot” the decision of the first panel following public outcry over the decision, and created a second panel to continue the preliminary investigation.
Aguirre resigned afterwards.
