By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
Businessman and suspected drug lord Peter Go Lim has asked the Supreme Court to put a stop to the Department of Justice’s reinvestigation into the drug charges filed against him.
In seeking for a temporary restraining order and/or a writ of preliminary injunction on the preliminary probe conducted by a second panel of prosecutors, Lim, in his 48-page petition for certiorari, argued that the March 19 DOJ order that “vacated” the December 20, 2017 decision of a first panel of prosecutors and that remanded his case to the second panel should be “set aside” and “nullified” in the first place.
The first panel, in the December 2017 decision, dismissed the drug charges against him, citing the alleged inconsistencies in the affidavits of the state’s sole witness, Marcelo Adorco.
According to Lim, the April 27 DOJ resolution that denied his appeal for a reversal of the March order should also be set aside.
“Grave abuse of discretion”
In his petition— filed a day after the second panel stopped the separate preliminary investigation he had sought for, and declared his case submitted for resolution—-Lim argued that the March 19 and April 27 orders issued by then-Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and Aguirre’s successor Menardo Guevarra, respectively, were issued “with grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack or excess of jurisdiction” in the first place.
He said they were also in “violation of” his “constitutional rights to life and liberty, due process of law, and speedy disposition” of his case.
Instead, he said the SC should reinstate the December 20, 2017 order.
“Hence, unless the ongoing continuation of the preliminary investigation in the case below is enjoined, petitioner will be constrained to participate in a void proceeding and suffer great and irreparable prejudice as a result thereof,” Lim said.
In a text message to reporters, Guevarra said the “DOJ welcomes the filing of the petition and is ready to defend its actions before the SC. ” With a report from Erwin Temperante