Aguirre tags Cebu City mayor in drug trade

MANILA, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is involved in the illegal drug trade, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said yesterday.

Aguirre said they have a witness who submitted an affidavit who named Osmeña as a “protector of drug lords.”

“We have an affidavit and a witness under the Witness Protection Program who is saying that (Osmeña) is in the payroll of drug lords,” he said.

Aguirre said the witness surfaced last year, but he did not divulge it because they were still building the case.

“The witness with the affidavit is there...I’m having it reviewed by the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) to see if there could be some additional evidence,” he said.

Aguirre said the NBI would file charges against Osmeña once the information is verified.

Asked about the specific charges to be filed against Osmeña, Aguirre said, “Something like protection of drug lords together with police officials.”

Last week, Osmeña threatened to file graft and disbarment cases against Aguirre over his supposed interference in the tax evasion charges filed by the Cebu City government against executives of SM Prime Holdings and BDO Unibank Inc.

Aguirre said Osmeña should just file charges against him. 

“That is baseless...He should just file it instead of threatening me publicly,” Aguirre said.

He said there was nothing irregular in his order to transfer the cases against SM and BDO executives to the Department of Justice from the Cebu prosecutor’s office.

Aguirre said the respondents requested the transfer because they feel they could ”hardly expect fairness since the people (in Cebu) will favor the mayor.”

“It is within my power to transfer cases, which I always exercise,” he added.