Argosino, Robles appeal denial of bail in P50-M bribery case

Former Immigration deputy commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles have urged the Sandiganbayan to reconsider allowing them to post bail, citing supposedly weak evidence in the plunder case against them over the P50-million bribery scandal at the Bureau of Immigration.

In their respective motions for reconsideration filed before the Sixth Division, Argosino and Robles said the testimonies of Commissioner Jaime Morente and former BI intelligence chief Charles Calima Jr. cannot be accepted in court since they were not present at the meeting at the City of Dreams in November 2016 at the heart of the plunder case.

Morente had tagged Calima as his source of information on the supposed intelligence operation against the BI deputies, but the then-intel chief admitted he has no personal knowledge of what transpired. 

The Argosino and Robles camps said this means their testimonies are hearsay, therefore the prosecution has no proof that they are liable of plunder, "more particularly the commission of series of criminal or overt acts."

They said the receipt of P20 million at 2 a.m. and P30 million at 5:45 a.m. from retired policeman Wally Sombero is insufficient to prove this charge, saying these incidents can only be considered as one transaction.

The Sandiganbayan had said that the mere receipt of the P50 million in exchange for the release of 1,316 illegal Chinese workers found at the Fontana Leisure Parks resort-casino of Jack Lam beyond the office hours of Argosino and Robles appears to be ill-gotten wealth.

However, the former BI officials said the CCTV footage presented in court showing their presence at City of Dreams on November 26 and 27 was inconclusive.

Argosino said the video had no audio feature and the prosecution presented no witness who can identify the persons shown in the footage.

Robles, for his part, said the CCTV video never showed that he and his colleague were in possession of the P50 million.

"The CCTV footages of the City of Dreams never showed accused Robles and Argosino in possession of a total of five paper bags, each containing 10 bundles of money, when they went to the parking area," Robles said in his motion.

No main plunderer

Argosino, whom the prosecution tagged as the main plunderer, said there was no evidence pointing to him as the primary culprit, particularly on the amassing of ill-gotten wealth.

He had claimed that the P50 million was part of their "evidence" against Lam.

"There must be proof evident that accused Argosino is the main plunderer and that the other accused allegedly conspired to his benefit. But from the evidence adduced, there was no express offer to prove this essential element nor can it be reasonably deduced from the evidence presented," Argosino said.

No admission of receipt

Meanwhile, Robles said he never admitted receiving the P50-million bribe money. He said Argosino never mentioned him as one of those who took custody of the money during their press conference that was posted on YouTube.

Robles said Argosino only uttered the word "we" and "discovered," which is too much to prove an actual receipt, during the press briefing on December 13, 2016.

"Even assuming for the sake of argument that the afore-stated admission of discovery of pay-off can be used against accused Robles, the discovery of pay-off is very much different from admission of receiving money. There is no need to belabour the whale of difference between receiving and discovery," he said.

Sombero appeal

Sombero, in his own appeal, said there is no proof he acted in conspiracy with the two BI deputy commissioners.

If any, he said, the prosecution's evidence against him is unreliable since he was Calima's asset against Argosino and Robles at City of Dreams.

"The 'highly reliable source referred to in Gen. Calima's memoranda (reports) to Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente was no other than accused Sombero," Sombero said, noting that the information he gave to Calima "triggered" the counter-intelligence operations against the BI officials.

Sombero said the operations were impossible to push through if not for the information he gave, which is why he was not included as a co-respondent in Calima's complaint against Argosino and Robles at the Office of the Ombudsman. — BM, GMA News