Dismissed BI officials not yet off the hook

Assistant Communications Secretary Marie Banaag. SCREENGRAB FROM RTV MALACAñANG VIDEO

Not so fast.

The dismissal from service of two senior officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) would not save them from facing possible criminal liabilities for receiving P50 million from casino operator Jack Lam, a Palace official said yesterday.

In fact, Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag said the fate of sacked BI associate commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles would rest on the results of the investigation of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

She stressed that President Duterte would not condone the unlawful acts of Argosino and Robles even if they were his “brods” at Lex Talionis fraternity.

“Remember that they were fired after they allegedly demanded money from Jack Lam. If and when the DOJ finds probable cause to indict the President’s brods, they (DOJ prosecutors) would file charges,” Banaag told government-owned radio DZRB.

“He (the President) is very vocal that if his brods, friends and even family members would be engaged in corruption, (they) would not be spared,” she added.

Mr. Duterte let the axe fall on Argosino and Robles, who both served as his election lawyers during the campaign, after the two admitted receiving the huge amount from Lam’s representative, retired police Senior Supt. Wally Sombero.

Sombero claimed the grease money was intended for the release of some of the 1,316 Chinese nationals arrested by immigration personnel for illegally working at Lam’s online gambling facility at Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino in Clark, Pampanga.

It was the biggest corruption scandal that hit the five-month-old Duterte administration.

Argosino and Robles were appointed by President Duterte in August to complete the BI’s three-man board, headed by Jaime Morente as chair.

Argosino graduated from San Beda College of Law and Robles, from San Sebastian College of Law.

Robles also went to San Beda and obtained an economics degree before passing the bar in 2000.

Argosino obtained a business management degree at San Beda as well before passing the bar in 1994. He was a private litigation lawyer before becoming an associate commissioner.