Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27) — The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the filing of criminal charges against former officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) over a P50-million corruption scandal.
Former deputy commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles should be charged with plunder, the Office of the Ombudsman said Friday.
The Ombudsman also ordered plunder charges against Wally Sombero, the supposed liaison of Macau-based gaming tycoon Jack Lam, it added.
“Investigations conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman established that Argosino and Robles received P50M from Chinese businessman Jack Lam in a deal facilitated by Sombero,” the Ombudsman said in a news release.
The amount was supposedly for the release of over 1,300 illegal Chinese workers who were arrested from Lam’s casino in Clark, Pampanga on November 24, 2016.
Also read: Chinese nationals file counter-affidavit, claim they are victims of illegal recruitment
Argosino, Robles, and Sombero will also be charged with one count each for direct bribery and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or Republic Act 3019.
These are on top of two counts each for violation of Presidential Decree no. 46, which makes it punishable for public officials and employees to receive – and for private persons to give – gifts to government officials and employees by reason of the official’s position.
Former BI intelligence chief, retired General Charles Calima, will also face a count each for direct bribery and graft. Argosino and Robles said Calima pocketed ₱18 million out of the of the ₱50 million bribe money.
“Calima’s criminal liability stems from his participation in the extortion plot as he received ₱18M from Argosino and Robles to, among other things, keep his silence,” the Ombudsman said.
The two disgraced former BI officials, Argosino and Robles, turned over the almost ₱30 million to authorities on December 13. It lacked ₱1,000. They said the remaining ₱2 million eventually went to Sombero.
The tycoon Lam is not off-the-hook, as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee earlier said in a hearing last year. Lam will be charged with a count of violating Presidential Decree no. 46 since he gave P50 million to the BI officials, the Ombudsman said.
Argosino and Robles have admitted to receiving money from Sombero, but they said they only took the money as evidence in an investigation they were conducting on Lam.
But Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales is not convinced.
“Their failure to immediately report to the proper investigating authority, or at the very least, their superiors, (Justice) Sec. (Vitaliano) Aguirre and Commissioner (Jaime) Morente, that they had custody of the P50M, contradicts their professed intentions,” Morales said.
She added, Argosino and Robles treated the P50 million as their own, that’s why they were able to give money to Sombero and Calima.
Related: Immigration officials face graft charges over extortion scandal
Sen. Richard Gordon earlier cleared Lam of bribery charges, as he said the immigration incident was a case of extortion by BI officers. Gordon is the Chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
During the hearings, senators observed that Robles seemed like an “unwilling accomplice” to his senior fraternity brother, Argosino. The embattled public officials are both members of the San Beda College of Law’s Lex Talionis Fraternitas Inc., the same fraternity group of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and President Rodrigo Duterte.
Aguirre also said testified to the Senate that he turned down from Sombero an offer of P100 million monthly to serve as a “protector” to Lam.
