THE House committee on good government on Tuesday ended its investigation of the Wang Bo controversy and the alleged bribery in exchange for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), concluding there was no evidence to support the allegation.
“It is with sadness and frustration that the state of our closed-circuit television cameras is not as good as we had hoped for. We don’t have the footage that would have actually proven discharged all members (lawmakers) of (bribery) allegations,” Romualdez told the panel, chaired by Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, said.
The committee, upon the motion of 1-BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III, decided to put a stop to the probe because no evidence was established.
Also during the hearing, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, in a letter sent to the committee, said that the team of the National Bureau of Investigations which also conducted an investigation found no evidence to support the allegations of bribery—both on the part of Immigration officials and lawmakers.
“The team did not find any direct or indirect pieces of evidence pointing to pay-offs between the party of Bong Wang and any official/ employee of the Bureau of Immigration. Neither did the team find any evidence to substantiate the allegations that Wang Bo financed the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in the House of Representatives; nor was there any lead found to suggest the monetary contribution from the camp of Bo Wang favoring the Liberal Party or any political party for the matter,” de Lima said in her letter.
“Further, no iota of evidence was discovered that would give credence to the malicious allegation that Bo Wang’s camp contributed money for the senatorial campaign of the Honorable Secretary of Justice or any official for that matter,” De Lima said, referring to herself.
“Nonetheless, few individuals interviewed insisted, without going on record, that money indeed exchanged hands within the Immigration Bureau. Besides according to them, the figures (ranging from a low of P5 million to a high of P10 million) are all hearsay,” de Lima added.
It was alleged in the reports that P100 million was committed for the entire BI for supposed fund-raising campaign of LP and some $10-million, or P440 million, would be allocated for some 292 lawmakers; and that Wang Bo was behind the fund raising activity.
Romualdez lamented that the probe could have been more substantial if only House security personnel did not overwrite the footage of the lower house’s state-of-art CCTV system as admitted by House Sergeant-At-Arms Nicasio Radovan, Jr.
Radovan earlier said the 24-hour footages of the rear entrance, the hallway going towards the Office of the Speaker on May 25, 26 and 27, 2015 were no longer available because they were automatically deleted after five days due to the system’s limited capacity.
Radovan also told the panel that Samuel Pandagani, chief of technical Security Unit/Internal Security Group of the Legislative Security Bureau (LSB), sent to Romualdez a memorandum dated July 14, 2015 informing the lawmaker about the result of its investigation.
Romualdez’s office earlier asked the concerned offices at the Lower House in charge of the CCTV footages for a copy of the footages on the said dates where alleged delivery of the alleged bribe money were delivered to the Office of the Speaker.
Radovan told the panel he already proposed to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. the purchase of new CCTV cameras to address the security problem.
Bello moved that the discussion on the CCTV issue be conducted during an executive session so as not to expose the security nightmare problem of the House.
“We are exposing the security deficiencies of the House of Representatives. Let’s talk this in an executive session. This issue is quite sensitive. Let’s hold it in abeyance,” Bello said.