Wealthy Cebu businessman Peter Lim, President Duterte’s kumpadre (wedding cosponsor), and several other suspected high-profile drug personalities have been exonerated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a drug trafficking case filed by the police last year, the INQUIRER learned on Monday.

The resolution, which was approved by Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan, was issued by a panel of DOJ prosecutors on Dec. 20, 2017, but was apparently kept from the members of the media.

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Shortly after launching his bloody drug war in 2016, Mr. Duterte named Lim as one of the country’s biggest drug lords and even threatened to kill him.

The President, however, went soft on the suspected drug Triad boss and even granted Lim’s request for a meeting at Mr. Duterte’s satellite office in Davao City.

In a 41-page resolution, the DOJ said the weak evidence presented by the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group against Lim and his fellow respondents prompted the dismissal of the complaint against them.

“We are mindful of the zealous intention of the complainant to eliminate the illegal drug menace prevalent in our country today, and it is public knowledge that this fight has taken numerous lives,” the DOJ panel said.

“However,… ‘judges, prosecutors and law enforcers are reminded that in the performance of their duties, they should act with circumspection,’” it added.

Besides Lim, also cleared were confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, convicted drug lord Peter Co, Lovely Impal, Marcelo Adorco, Max Miro, Ruel Malindangan, Jun Pepito and other personalities known only by their aliases.

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