(Eagle News)—The Department of Justice has found probable cause to file charges against businessman Peter Lim for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading with suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and several others.
In finding probable cause against Lim, Espinosa, Ruel Malindangan and Marcelo Adorco, the panel composed of Senior Assistant State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera, Anna Doreen Devanadera and prosecution lawyer Herbert Calvin Abugan gave weight to the admission of Espinosa he was a drug distributor in a Senate inquiry, and to Adorco’s positive identification of Lim as one of Espinosa’s drug suppliers.
It also gave weight to Espinosa’s positive identification of Lim.
“Furthermore, (Lim’s) alibi that he could not have possibly been in Thailand during the time attested (to) by Adorco has to yield to the positive and affirmative statements of said witness,” the panel said.
The panel added the drugs themselves as corpus delicti of drug trading are “not essential” under Section 26 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, and that the “agreement to trade in drugs is the gravamen of the offense.”
The charges will be filed before the Makati Regional Trial Court.