Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim Monday said he will not do anything to help his son who has been arrested in a police operation over the weekend allegedly for trying to sell metamphetamine.
The 77-year-old mayor said he will let his son to face the consequences of his actions, adding that the incident dealt a blow to the family.
Manuel Santos Lim, 44, a businessman, was arrested with two other men in Sta. Cruz, Manila. The three yielded 100 grams of metamphetamine worth 600,000 pesos (14,380 U.S. dollars), Philippine TV network ABS-CBN reported.
"I'll not protect him. I'll not cover up the case. I'll not lift a finger to help him. Let it be if he'll be sentenced (to jail). He should be man enough to face the music," said the mayor.
The mayor, a former police official, was dubbed "Dirty Harry" for his uncompromising stance against crime when he was chief of the National Bureau of Investigation. Dirty Harry is the name of a hardliner inspector in a U.S. crime film.
During his first stint as mayor of Manila in the 1990s, Lim pursued a relentless campaign against drugs, marking the houses of drug suspects with red paint to shame them. He will be remembered for his mantra at the time: "The law applies to all or none at all."
"That remains my philosophy, that's what I've been fighting for. I only help those who are victims of injustice. So if he (Manuel) violated the law, let the axe fall where it may," he said.
Alfredo Lim said his son, arrested when trying to sell methamphetamine to an undercover police agent last Friday, could have turned to drugs because of family problems.
"His wife, along with two children, left him," the mayor said of his son. "We have been telling him that it (drugs) won't solve his problems but he did not listen."
The elder Lim said he received phone calls from his other children who were living overseas.
"They were crying, asking me what I would do, but they know me well enough. They know I don't tolerate any wrongdoing," he said.
"Since they were young, I have been telling them that they should be responsible for their actions. They cannot count on me to help them if they did something wrong," the mayor said.
The mayor admitted that he and his son have not been on speaking terms for several months.
Asked if he was planning to visit his son in the custody of thePhilippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Lim said "No."
"He should take responsibility for himself," the mayor said.
"That's what he got for joining bad company," he added.
Manny Lim has not been formally charged yet. If convicted, he could face years in prison.
The Philippines is one of the major producers of methamphetamine, locally known as "shabu."
"The mayor's position was very clear that there would be no sacred cows. Unfortunately, even we were surprised when the mayor's son turned out to be one of the suspects," said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency head Dionisio Santiago.
Source: Xinhua
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