Newly-freed Leviste shows up at DOJ drug cartel probe

(Updated 3:42 p.m.) A month after he was released from prison, convicted killer and former Batangas governor Jose Antonio Leviste on Thursday appeared before the Department of Justice to deny that he owned a ranch where a powerful Mexican drug cartel in the Philippines reportedly operated.

Clad in a blue polo and accompanied by his lawyer, Leviste, who was granted parole last November after almost five years behind bars, arrived around 2 p.m. at the DOJ office in Manila.

During the proceedings, led by Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, Leviste submitted a three-page affidavit in which he denied owning or having anything to do with the LPL Ranch Estate (Block 4, Lot 4) in Barrio Inosluban, Lipa City, Batangas.

Leviste's counsel attached several documents to support his claim, including a transfer certificate of title and an amended article of incorporation showing the property belonged to a company called Running Spring Real Estate Inc.

“I am not the owner, lessor, lessee of the property. I have no knowledge or participation in the management and or lease of the property,” said Leviste.

Leviste said he has never met any of the respondents in the case, namely Gary Tan Arjay Argenos, Rochelle Argenos, and Jorge Torres.

“I have absolutely no knowledge or participation in any capacity whatsoever of their alleged or reported illegal activities in or out of the property,” he said.

Leviste bemoaned that his and his family's reputation was not only “tarnished and besmirched,” but his conditional freedom was likewise placed at risk by the “unwarranted, baseless and cruel news report.”

“I appeal to all concerned to please be accurate and circumspect in their statements and reporting of the facts of the case, to spare my family further pain and suffering,” he said.

During Thursday's proceedings, lawyers of the respondents pleaded for more time to file their counter-affidavit to the charges being hurled against them. The DOJ panel gave them until January 15 to submit.

“You are aware that this was originally an inquest proceeding and that your clients asked for a regular preliminary investigation, so no one will be heard complain[ing] that this preliminary investigation went beyond the usual period required [to submit counter affidavits],” Navera told the lawyers of the defendants.

Meanwhile, lawyers of Leviste's brother Conrad and ranch administrator Benedicto Orense, who were also summoned to the preliminary investigation, said the two chose not to attend in anticipation of the heavy traffic from the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

Their camp also insisted Conrad and Benedicto were mere lessors of the ranch and had noting to do with the administration of and activities in the property.

Meanwhile, Leviste's nephew and Batangas Vice Governor Jose Antonio Mark Leviste, who was also summoned, failed to attend the preliminary investigation. His lawyers insisted that he had “totally disengaged” himself from the family property ever since he held a public post.

DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima had earlier said Leviste will be asked to produce the lease contract of the LPL Ranch located in Barangay Inosluban in Lipa City, Batangas, where P420 million in illegal drugs was seized by authorities last month.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority (PDEA) said the illegal drugs recovered from the ranch can be traced to the Mexican Sinoloa drug ring, which has been tagged by international media as Mexico's most powerful drug syndicate. — KBK, GMA News