TWO of the co-accused in the drug charges filed against businessman Peter Lim and self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa are already dead, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
The DoJ said the returned subpoenas confirmed that Max Miro and Noel “Jun” Pepito were killed in separate incidents.
Miro died March 10 in a police operation conducted by Ormoc PNP in Barangay Bantigue, Ormoc City, while Pepito was killed by assassins on a motorcycle in Albuera, Leyte on Dec. 1, 2017.
Aside from Lim, Espinosa, Miro and Pepito, the police named as respondents convicted drug lord Peter Co, alleged drug supplier Lovely Impal, alleged drug dealer Marcelo Adorco, Ruel Malindangan, and several others who are only known by the aliases Amang, Ricky, Warren, Tupie, Jojo, Jaime, Yawa, Lapi, Royroy, Marlon, and Bay.
The subpoenas issued by a reconstituted panel of prosecutors required the respondents to attend the first hearing set at 1 p.m. on April 12.
The new panel of prosecutors formed by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II is composed of Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, Assistant State Prosecutor Anna Norren Devanadera, and Prosecution lawyer Herbert Calvin Abugan.
Aguirre empowered the panel to continue the preliminary investigation on the cases against the two alleged drug kingpins.
He made the move after being criticized when a panel of Justice department prosecutors dismissed the drug complaint filed by the Philippine National Police, citing the lack of evidence and inconsistencies in the testimony of a respondent-turned-witness, Marcelo Adorco.
Aguirre has since overturned the original panel’s decision.