FOLLOWING fresh reports that suspected drug lord Peter Lim has left the country, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday, June 28, 2021, said the Bureau of Immigration has no record of his departure.
“Per BI records, there is no record of departure by Peter Go Lim. His last recorded foreign travel was in 2017,” Guevarra said in a message to reporters.
Guevarra said Lim’s Philippine passport expired in 2019.
However, Guevarra could not categorically say that Lim is still in the country.
“We cannot really be sure. Our country has a very extensive coastline. There are known backdoors in our southern borders,” he said.
In a press conference on Monday, June 28, 2021, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Guillermo Eleazar said the Directorate for Intelligence, Police Drug Enforcement Group, and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group are coordinating with their foreign counterparts to locate Lim.
“Basta siya ay mahuhuli at mahuhuli rin siya whether siya ay nasa loob o labas ng Pilipinas (He will be caught, whether in or outside the country). It’s just a matter of time,” he said.
Lim has a standing arrest warrant over charges of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.
He was tagged as the source of the illegal drugs supply of self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa and his group, who were operating in Cebu in 2013 and 2014.
In 2018, the government offered a P500,000 bounty for Lim’s arrest.
Last week, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año was quoted as saying that Lim may have already left the country. (SunStar Philippines)