THE Justice Department has issued subpoenas to Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim and seven other suspected drug lords to answer charges filed by the Philippine National Police for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
Aside from Lim, the department ordered Roland “Kerwin” Espinosa, convicted drug lord Peter Co, Marcelo Adorco, Max Miro and Lovely Impal to respond to the complaint, which was filed July 5.
The investigating panel composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Aristotle Reyes and John Michael Humarang has set the first preliminary investigation hearing of the drug charges on Aug. 14.
On Monday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issued a lookout bulletin order against Lim and other respondents, ordering the Bureau of Immigration to monitor the possible flight by Lim and the other respondents.
Espinosa, confessed drug dealer and son of slain drug lord Mayor Rolando Espinosa, is currently under government’s witness protection program after he testified against Senator Leila de Lima, who has been detained on drug charges.
In a Senate hearing last year, Espinosa tagged Lim as the top supplier of illegal drugs in Central Visayas.
An earlier National Bureau of Investigation report to the Justice Department said Lim, who met with Duterte a year ago to deny that he was a drug dealer, was the same person on the President’s list of drug suspects released last year.