‘Pay-off, not bribery’: Sombero qualifies role in BI scandal
RETIRED police superintendent Wenceslao “Wally” A. Sombero attended for the first time the Senate inquiry on the alleged bribery of Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials for the release of more than a thousand Chinese nationals illegally employed in the Fontana resort operated by casino mogul Jack Lam.
Charlie “Atong” Ang, a business partner of Mr. Lam, and Fontana managing director Norman Ng and services manager Alex Yu were also allowed to testify. Former immigration commissioner Al C. Argosino previously identified Messrs. Ng and Yu as Jack Lam’s interpreters.
Mr. Sombero refused to call the P50-million transaction between him and former Bureau of Immigration Commissioners Argosino and Michael B. Robles extortion or bribery, choosing to use the term “pay-off” instead. He said the meeting between him, DoJ Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre, and Messrs. Lam, Ng, Yu and Argosino at Shangri-La Makati on Nov. 26 was only the second time he had met the casino mogul, adding that he was assisting him as president of non-government organization (NGO) Asian Gaming Service Provider Association, Inc. (AGSPA).
“I’d like to make in the records that what happened in the City of Dreams at 11:00 p.m. of Nov. 26 up to 6:00 a.m. of Nov. 27 was not extortion or bribery, it was a pay-off,” Mr. Sombero said. “Extortion happened on Nov. 26, not on Nov. 27. The money involved there in my opinion was a business decision on the part of the Jack Lam Group to decide or agree on the amount.”
“The money did not come from Jack Lam, it came from the people leasing IT-BPOs inside of Fontana,” he added.
Mr. Sombero was referred to Mr. Ng by one Gigi Rodriguez, head of one of the companies renting a villa in Fontana, after the arrest of 1,316 Chinese nationals working in the resort without proper papers.
The two met, along with Messrs. Yu and Lam, at the City of Dreams casino complex in Parañaque on Nov. 25. The controversial meeting with Mr. Aguirre happened the next day, and the P50-million transaction between Mr. Sombero and the two former BI commissioners the day after that.
The money, Mr. Lam’s cohorts said, was supposedly for the release of their employees, following a discussion with Chinese stakeholders at Fontana resort.
“It was ours, it was money from the casino,” Mr. Ang said. “Mr. Lam told us to release the money.”
Mr. Yu ordered the release of the money from the casino cage at City of Dreams. Mr. Sombero said he witnessed this, adding that since he did not want to handle the money himself, he ordered two people named Garfield and Martin to carry the money for him. He also claimed he did not check if it was really money or how much it really was. That was the sum handed over to the two former immigration commissioners.
No Fontana employee was released after that “bail” money was released, prompting Mr. Ang and company to hold a press conference on Dec. 2.
Mr. Lam’s group also refused to entertain requests for another P50 million as sought by Mr. Argosino, who denied at the hearing asking for that money.
Mr. Sombero’s style of answering questions during the hearing earned the ire of Blue Ribbon committee chair Senator Richard J. Gordon, who threatened to cite him in contempt more than once for “being too technical” and “a pilosopo.”
The fifth and possibly last hearing on the BI bribery scandal will be held on March 2. Speaking to reporters after the eight hour hearing yesterday, Mr. Gordon said the next hearing would focus on crafting legislation from the testimonies. —