2 Immigration execs linked to LP deny Wang Bo payola for campaign kitty
TWO deputy commissioners with links to the Liberal Party (LP) denied that they facilitated the supposed money extracted from alleged Chinese crime syndicate leader Wang Bo to raise the campaign funds for the ruling administration party.
Associate Commissioners Gilberto Repizo and Abdullah Mangotara were quick to protect the LP from the payola mess, saying the allegation was only a ploy to besmirch the party.
The two officials said they remained true to President Benigno Aquino III’s straight path (“tuwid na daan”) principle.
Both Repizo and Mangotara were appointed to the bureau by President Aquino.
“We have religiously followed and implemented the president’s policy of daang matuwid. The alleged bribery and corruption involving Chinese national Wang Bo is a mere declaration and a propaganda that tends to besmirch the Liberal Party and malign the leadership of the House of Representatives, of which this humble representation was a former member,” said Mangotara, a former Lanao Del Norte congressman under the Liberal Party from 1995 to 2001.
Mangotara was appointed to the bureau by President Aquino.
He maintained that he has never met any member of the House “to make any indecent proposal.”
For his part, Repizo denied that he gave the alleged BBL payola to Liberal Party treasurer Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali, who is the brother of Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali.
Repizo is the personal lawyer of Governor Umali.
“I object to the strongest in the strongest possible terms the insinuation linking resolution of the Bureau of Immigration to allegations of congressional pay-off to the Bangsamoro pay-off and Liberal Party fundraising campaign. The reporter’s story is baseless and unfounded,” Repizo said in reading his letter to the editor of The Standard newspaper, which published the allegations.
The House probe stemmed from The Standard report, which alleged that P440 million were allocated to pay off the 292 lawmakers in the lower chamber – or P1.5 million promised to each lawmaker – for their vote for the BBL.
The newspaper report said the funds came from Wang Bo who paid the Bureau of Immigration (BI) P100 million to secure his release after the BI initially ordered his deportation, and another P400 million for the lawmakers.
Wang Bo allegedly embezzled $100 million and is suspected of opening casinos for transnational gambling.
The report said bags of cash were allegedly unloaded in the rear entrance of the House of Representatives and these were taken to the office of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
The report said the CCTV footage of the incident that supposedly occurred from Monday to Wednesday last week has been overwritten.
Lawmakers also zeroed in on the flip-flopping decisions by the Bureau of Immigration over the deportation order issued against Wang Bo on charges of transnational gambling and money laundering.
The BI summary deportation order against Wang Bo issued on March 5 was later reversed by the BI on May 21. But Mison later called for a special meeting on May 26 to reinstate the deportation order following a letter from the Chinese embassy signed by the police consul about Wang Bo’s alleged crimes.
But he was outvoted by Repizo and Mangotara. Repizo said he voted against the deportation order because the documents attached to the letter were photocopied and needed to be authenticated.
Repizo said his vote against Wang Bo’s deportation was more on the need to verify documents than to protect any individual.
“Our issue here is not about Wang Bo. It’s about the processes of the BI… It’s not about the individual,” Repizo said.
An LP official then scored Repizo for insisting that the rules of evidence pertaining to authentic documents need to be followed.
Iloilo city Representative Jerry Trenas said the BI in its previous decisions did not require original documents for deportation.
Trenas said what seemed to have happened was that the immigration commissioners decided on the case based on their own whims instead of on earlier decisions of the bureau.
“I think the problem here is because commissioners at their own discretion decide cases, and the name of the House of Representatives was dragged into the matter. I think we should craft a law that will not allow anyone to use his own discretion, that you are guided by rulings or orders of the previous commissioners,” Trenas said.
“I cannot understand why the commissioners are fighting for the rights of a Chinese national whose passport was canceled. Probably because it’s more fun in the Philippines,” he added. AC
