Gaming tycoon Jack Lam has sent surrender feelers and offered to pay his taxes and liability to the government, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday.
Duterte welcomed this development with conditions: Lam must renegotiate his contracts and apologize for bribery attempts.
“He has offered to come back, to resume his business, pay his taxes, liability, whatever it is, then [I said] on a condition that he lets go of the original contract that gave him to enjoy only one percent,” Duterte said in an ambush interview at the inauguration of the Bicol International Airport in Legazpi City in Albay.
“Just pay the taxes, do not bribe anybody,” he added.
Duterte said Lam “takes pity of the 6,000 plus Filipinos out of job” after his casino in Pampanga was ordered closed. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has also ordered the closure of his casino operation of the Fort Ilocandia Resort and Casino (FIRC) in Ilocos Norte.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II earlier said Lam, through his representative, former policeman Wally Sombero, attempted to bribe him in a meeting at the Shangri-La hotel at The Fort two days after the arrest of the illegal Chinese workers.
The arrest order came after the arrest of over 1,000 Chinese workers illegally working in Lam’s gaming facility in Clark, Pampanga.