‘Lam’s workers asked to pay up to P3M to regain passports’

Workers of Jack Lam at  theFontana Leisure Parks and Casino become victims of extortion scheme of some lower-ranked immigration bureau officers. —PHOTO COURTESY OF CDC

The arrested workers at Jack Lam’s casino hotel in Clark, Pampanga are being asked to pay up to P3 million just to get back their passports, businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang told a Senate hearing on Thursday.

Ang took the ongoing Senate blue ribbon committee’s investigation on the bribery scandal to ask for help for the workers of Next Games Outsourcing Inc. who he said were being demanded to pay from P150,000 to P3 million to repossess their passports.

“Hingi na rin ako ng tulong kay Secretary at sa Immigration. Yung mga nahuli sa amin sa Next Games, yung iba dun paki-imbestigahan lang, yung mga passport kinuha pinapatubos ng P150,000 to P3 million. Hindi na namin alam kung ano ang nangyari sa ibang tao,” said Ang, Lam’s business partner, told the committee.

(I would like to ask the help of the Secretary [of Justice] and the Immigration. Arrested workers from Next Games  were asked to shell out from P150,000 to P3 million to get their passports back. We don’t know what happened to the other workers.)

“Ang daming passport na kinuha, may 600 tapos pinapatubos isa-isa…Ang corruption kasi dito nasa ibaba e, wala naman sa itaas. Yun ang problema natin. Kaya humihingi kami ng tulong,” he said.

(They confiscated so many passports; there were 600 which they want to be redeemed…The corruption is taking place in the lower level of the bureau. That’s the problem. We are asking for your help.)

The alleged bribery scandal being investigated by the committee stemmed from the arrest of 1,316 workers at Lam’s Fontana Casino and Leisure Park at the Clark Freeport, Pampanga.

To release the workers, Lam’s camp, through former police official Wally Sombero Jr., allegedly paid an initial P50 million to two former Bureau Immigration Associate Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles.

But Ang claimed the money was not a bribe but bail for the arrested workers./rga