DOJ junks Peter Lim plea to stop new probe

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday denied a plea by alleged drug lord Peter Lim to stop a new preliminary investigation of the drug charges against him.

In a four-page resolution, Guevarra denied the April 6 motion for reconsideration filed by the Cebu-based businessman for lack of merit.

Guevarra said Lim failed to show that his rights to due process and a speedy disposition of the case against him were violated by the order for a new preliminary investigation by another panel of prosecutors, issued by then justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II just before he resigned earlier this month.  

He also denied Lim’s plea to uphold the first DOJ panel’s decision in December 2017, released last March, to dismiss the drug case filed against him.

Police filed the case against Lim after he and convicted drug lord Peter Co were identified by Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa, a self-confessed drug lord, as being involved in his “illegal drug trading activity” during a Senate hearing.