Sombero: P50M handed to ex-BI execs a payoff

It was a “payoff,” former police official Wenceslao “Wally” Sombero Jr. told a Senate hearing on Thursday, referring to the P50 million that he personally handed to two former immigration officials last November.

Testifying for the first time before the Senate blue ribbon committee, Sombero narrated his own version of the  “bribery” scandal hounding the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

READ: Sombero appears in Senate probe on Lam ‘bribery’ case

“I’d like to make of record that what happened in City of Dreams between 11 o’clock ng gabi ng  (in the evening of) Nov 26 up to 6:30 in the morning of Nov 27. Wala pong nangyaring (There was no) extortion or bribery for the record Mr. Chair,” he said, responding to Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s queries.

Asked then by Escudero what he called what happened during the meeting, Sombero said: “Yun po ay (That is a) payoff.”

Present in the said meeting at a restaurant of the City Dreams were Sombero and former BI Associate Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles, who allegedly received P50 million  from the former police official.

The meeting supposedly started in the evening of November 26, 2016 and lasted until morning of November 27. During the meeting, Sombero allegedly handed the money to Argosino and Robles supposedly in exchange for the release of undocumented workers at a casino hotel in Pampanga owned by gambling tycoon Jack Lam.

Escudero asked Sombero to explain how the “payoff” was different from extortion and bribery.

“Kasi po ang extortion na sinasabi natin, nangyari po noong November 26, hindi po noong November 27 (The extortion happened on November 26, not November 27),” the former official said.

But Sombero believed that the money did not come from Lam but from online gaming service providers, who were renting at Lam’s Fontana in Clark, Pampanga.

“Yun pong perang involved dun sa aking palagay, sa aking (The money involved there in my) opinion, Sir, it was a business decision on the part of the Jack Lam group to decide or to agree on that amount…” he added. RAM/rga

PSSupt Wenceslao “Wally” Sombero Jr. at the Senate hearing on the Jack Lam bribery case. INQUIRER/L. RILLON

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