Sombero appears in Senate probe on Lam ‘bribery’ case

Wally Sombero. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Former police general Wenceslao “Wally” Sombero Jr. appeared for the first time on Thursday in the Senate blue ribbon committee’s investigation of the alleged P50 million bribery scandal involving immigration officials.

Sombero returned to the country from Canada last Tuesday despite threats of arrest and detention for repeated failure to attend the hearings of the committee.

It was the former police official who allegedly handed P50 million to former Bureau of Immigration (BI) Associate Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles supposedly for the release of undocumented Chinese workers at a casino hotel in Pampanga owned by gambling tycoon Jack Lam.

READ: Jack Lam ‘middleman’ Wally Sombero back in PH | 2 BI execs admit receiving P48M from Jack Lam

Argosino and Robles have admitted receiving money from Sombero but said it would be used as evidence against Lam.

But Sombero, in various interviews after his arrival, denied that he personally knew Lam or that he was the businessman’s middleman.

Aside from Sombero, Argosino and Robles were also invited to the hearing of the committee along with Lam’s interpreters, Norman Ng and Alex Xu.

Also invited were former BI Intelligence chief Charles Calima, who is also allegedly part of the scandal, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, and Charlie “Atong” Ang, Lam’s friend and business partner. CBB/rga