House to summon CCTV personnel on alleged Wang Bo bribery

THE House of Representatives has summoned the personnel manning the security cameras of the House of Representatives to finally put an end to allegations that huge sums of bribe money from accused Chinese crime lord Wang Bo were delivered to the chamber.

During a hearing by the committee on good governance and public accountability on Tuesday, Pampanga Representative Oscar Rodriguez said the personnel would be invited in the next hearing to shed light on The Standard’s allegations that the bribe money were delivered to the office of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Reporter Christine Herrera said the bribe money worth P440 million was brought to the House of Representatives through the rear entrance and carried to the Speaker’s office through the hallway.

She claimed that she found it curious that the security personnel manning the CCTV had said that the footage of the incident that supposedly took place from May 25 to 27 was overwritten already.

Herrera said that Belmonte also told her the CCTV cameras had been defective since he first took office.

“I asked the House security to produce the CCTV. I got curious about how they explained it to me on the circumstances behind the CCTV that it was overwritten for those three days. I asked them to produce the tapes and then the Speaker said it was defective since day one he assumed office. So I don’t know what’s going on,” Herrera said.

She said her proof included testimonial evidence that some five lawmakers admitted receiving bribe, which they described as “barya-barya” (small amount).

When asked if she believed her story despite several lawmakers denying the bribe, Herrera said she still stood by her story.

She said she would only take back her report if her sources recanted their statements of receiving the bribe and if the CCTV video would be shown proving no such delivery in Congress happened.

“Ganoon ba sila kababaw na tatanggap ng barya-barya?” Rodriguez said.

“In my years of covering Congress, there are times that we make chika (chat). But there are times that we also take about serious things like this,” Herrera said of her informants.

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 for their vote for the proposed Bangsamoro basic law.

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 P440 million for the lawmakers.

The part of the alleged bribe also went to the campaign kitty of the Liberal Party for the 2016 elections.

Immigration Associate Commissioners Gilberto Repizo and Abdullah Mangotara denied the bribe try. Wang Bo also denied operating a transnational gambling syndicate.

Wang Bo allegedly embezzled $100 million and is suspected of opening casinos for transnational gambling.