JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Wednesday required Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente to turn over P20 million from the P50 million allegedly extorted from Chinese casino mogul Jack Lam.
Aguirre ordered Morente to surrender to his department or to the National Bureau of Investigation the amount he considers evidence in the extortion case.
Aguirre, who supervises the Bureau of Immigration, gave Morente 24 hours or until December 22 to comply with his order.
“You are likewise instructed to make a written report to the undersigned on your compliance with this directive not later than 5 p.m. tomorrow, December 22, 2016,” Aguirre said in his memo.
He issued his order after Morente admitted in an interview on Tuesday that he authorized the counter-intelligence operation led by dismissed BI intelligence division chief Charles Calima Jr. against former BI Deputy Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles, who were also ordered dismissed by President Rodrigo Duterte for their involvement in the extortion case.
Aguirre said the P50 million was proof of corruption.
“It should be surrendered immediately for accounting and safekeeping. The longer it remains not surrendered, the longer doubt persists,” he said.
Argosino and Robles earlier surrendered to the Justice department the P30 million that they kept for over two weeks. They said it was part of the P50 million they received from Lam through former police chief superintendent Wally Sombero, who supposedly served as Lam’s middleman, on November 27 as part of their covert operation to catch corrupt Immigration officials.
They claimed that Sombero took the P2 million for his alleged commission while P18 million went to Calima, who was ordered dismissed by Aguirre along with technical assistant for intelligence Edward Chan.
The bribe money was supposedly for the release of the undocumented Chinese workers arrested in Lam’s illegal casino facility in his Fontana Leisure Resort in Clark Field, Pampanga, on November 24.
