NBI says charges filed vs. Jack Lam, ex-BI commissioners

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed charges against Chinese gambling tycoon Jack Lam and two dismissed Bureau of Immigration (BI) deputy commissioners tagged in the P50-million bribery scandal, Director Dante Gierran told the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday. 

Gierran said the NBI filed with the Office of the Ombudsman cases of direct bribery, violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Presidential Decree No. 46, which prohibits public officials to receive and for private persons to give gifts on any occasion. 

Aside from Lam and former commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles, also charged were BI intelligence chief Charles Calima and Lam’s alleged middleman, former police officer Wally Sombero. The charges were filed on January 27. 

Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the blue ribbon panel, asked Gierran whether Sombero was charged for supposedly “offering” the bribe to Argosino and Robles, to which the NBI official said “yes.” 

Sombero earlier told the committee through a letter sent to Gordon that the bribery scandal was a “consummated extortion rather than a mere perception of bribery.” 

Gierran, meanwhile, said Calima was included in those charged “under the principle of conspiracy.” 

Senator Leila de Lima, former Justice secretary, questioned the procedure of the NBI in filing the charges before the Ombudsman without passing through DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

De Lima said the “prosecutorial function” of the DOJ is to determine which charges to file and which charges not to push through with. 

Gierran explained that the “situation was not normal” because two of those accused -- Argosino and Robles -- are fraternity brothers of Aguirre. 

“Ma’am, we do not want to burden some more the Secretary of Justice,” Gierran told De Lima. — RSJ, GMA News