BI exec hit for lawyering for Wang Bo amid BBL payola mess

A LAWMAKER rebuked an Immigration official for lawyering for alleged Chinese crime lord Wang Bo who purportedly bribed the commissioners for his release after being ordered deported on transnational gambling charges.

During the House of Representatives investigation on Tuesday, Iloilo Rep. Jerry Trenas scored the Bureau of Immigration (BI) Associate Commissioner Gilberto Repizo for seeming to protect Wang Bo when the latter asked for authentic documents from the Chinese police consul before enforcing BI’s order to deport the Chinese national.

Wang Bo is also accused of paying off the BI for his release despite the deportation order and of funding the alleged payola to lawmakers for their vote for the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL).

Trenas said even when the rules of evidence require so, the BI in its earlier rulings has not required authentic documents to deport a blacklisted fugitive from justice.

When Trenas was about to say that the commissioner seemed to be lawyering for Wang Bo, Repizo butted in to defend himself, prompting the congressman to shout at the immigration official for not letting him finish his statement first.

“Will you please allow me to finish my question! This is the House of Representatives, you understand that!” Trenas lashed back.

After he calmed down, Trenas said the BI should follow its earlier rulings and not be subject to the personal whims of the commissioners.

He said Congress should pass a law prohibiting government agencies from making decisions whimsically.

“I think the problem here is because commissioners at their own discretion decide cases, and the name of the House of Representatives was dragged into the matter. I think we should craft a law that will not allow anyone to use his own discretion, that you are guided by rulings or orders of the previous commissioners,” Trenas said.

“I cannot understand why the commissioners are fighting for the rights of a Chinese national whose passport was canceled. Probably because it’s more fun in the Philippines,” he added.

Trenas made the statement as President Benigno Aquino III’s Liberal Party (LP) of which he is an official is dragged into the alleged payola scandal. Trenas is chairman of the LP organizing and membership committee.

Associate Commissioners Repizo and Abdullah Mangotara were accused of facilitating the payola by asking from Wang Bo money for the campaign funds of the administration party as well as for payoffs to lawmakers to pass the proposed Bangsamoro basic law.

Repizo was accused of giving the campaign fund payoff to LP treasurer Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali, brother of Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali.

Mangotara was a former Lanao Del Norte congressman under the Liberal Party from 1995 to 2001, while Repizo is a personal lawyer of Governor Umali.

Repizo was also Calapan city councilor in Oriental Mindoro from 1998 to 2001 and from 2010 to 2013.

The House probe stemmed from The Standard report, which alleged that P440 million were allocated to pay off the 292 lawmakers in the lower chamber – or P1.5 million promised to each lawmaker – for their vote for the BBL.

The newspaper report said the funds came from alleged Chinese criminal Wang Bo who paid the Bureau of Immigration (BI) P100 million to secure his release after the BI initially ordered his deportation, and another P400 million for the lawmakers.

Wang Bo allegedly embezzled $100 million and is suspected of opening casinos for transnational gambling.

The report said bags of cash were allegedly unloaded in the rear entrance of the House of Representatives and these were taken to the office of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

The report said the CCTV footage of the incident that supposedly occurred from Monday to Wednesday last week has been overwritten.

The BBL is expected to face rough passage after its main benefactor the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) got into an firefight with Special Action Force (SAF) troops last Jan. 25 in a botched antiterror operation meant to take down international terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir, who the MILF allegedly coddled in its territory. The incident resulted in the death of 44 SAF troopers, 18 MILF fighters and five civilians in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao. AC