Police tried to serve the arrest warrant against the businessman on his two listed addresses on Monday afternoon but failed to find him.
One team went to his old house in Barangay Kasambagan in Cebu City but a housemaid claimed that she had not seen Lim in the 10 years she had been working there.
Another team went to another house of Lim in Barangay Banilad, also in Cebu City, but a caretaker of the house claimed that he had not seen his employer for a long time.
Senior Supt. Royina Garma, Cebu City police director, said intelligence reports showed that Lim had already left Cebu.
She said, however, that they still need to serve the arrest warrant issued by Makati City Regional Trial Court last Aug. 16 to formally inform the court that the accused could no longer be found and to pave the way for the issuance of an alias warrant.
An alias arrest warrant has no expiration date and could be served anywhere in the Philippines.
The arrest warrant issued by the court mandated 鈥渁ny officer of the law鈥� to arrest Lim and bring him to the nearest prison or police station within 10 days.
READ: Makati court orders arrest of Peter Lim
Judge Gina Bibat-Palamos of the Regional Trial Court Branch 65 in Makati City issued the warrant on Lim after the Department of Justice indicted the Cebu-based businessman for violating Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, particularly for 鈥渟elling, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of any dangerous drug.鈥�
The DOJ used as a basis the testimony of self-confessed drug lord Rolando 鈥淜erwin鈥� Espinosa Jr. before the Senate where Lim was identified as one of his suppliers of dangerous drugs.
READ: DOJ finds probable cause to charge Cebu businessman Peter Lim for drugs
President Rodrigo Duterte publicly called out Lim in 2016, alleging that he was one of the biggest drug dealers in the country.
But Lim denied the charges, saying he was not the Peter Lim named by the President.
Chief Insp. Dindo Juanito Alaras, Mabolo Police Station chief, said they went to the ancestral house of Lim on Tres Borces Street Barangay Kasambagan but Lim was no longer there.
鈥淎 housemaid told us that she had not seen Lim since she started working there 10 years ago.
Only Lim鈥檚 mother lived in the house,鈥� said Alaras.
The caretaker of Lim鈥檚 house in Barangay Banilad also claimed that he had not seen the businessman since last year.
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, police director for Central Visayas, said they would report to RTC Branch 35 that the warrant was served but the subject could no longer be found. /ee
READ: WHAT WENT BEFORE: Who is Peter Lim?