Two officials from the Bureau of Immigration were accused of extortion for receiving P50 million from businessman Jack Lam for the release of over a thousand Chinese nationals involved in illegal online gambling operations caught in November. Immigration Deputy Commissioner Al Argosino and Michael Robles denied it, saying that they were only investigating Lam’s corrupt activities.
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An article from website mochausonph.blogspot.com then claimed that the BOI Commissioner is now considering donating the P50 million bribe to CBCP, which will be the one responsible in distributing the money to various churches around the country.
A certain Tyrone Reyes shared the article to the Facebook page “President Rody Duterte-Federal Movement International” and it has since gained 174 shares, 995 comments, and 945 reactions.
The article also noted that donating to the church is tax-free, as in the same case with donating to charity. It went on to discuss about the terms of donation, how to value it and deduct it from your taxes.
We read more articles about the alleged extortion case involving the two immigration officials, who are Lex Talionis frat brothers of President Rodrigo Duterte and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
Both Argosino and Robles surrendered P30 million to the National Bureau of Immigration, although there was reportedly a missing P1,000.
Asked where the other P20 million is, the two immigration officials said that retired police general Wally Sombero, whom they met supposedly as Lam’s middleman, took the P2 million as his alleged commission, while the P18 million went to BI intelligence division chief Charles Calima Jr.
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Aguirre dismissed Argosino and Robles from the government. , although the investigation against them is still ongoing. He also sacked Calima and his assistant, Police Colonel Edward Chan.
On December 21, Aguirre also gave BI Commissioner Jaime Morente until 5 pm of December 22 to turn over the remaining P20 million bribe. This came after Morente admitted to giving Calima the go-signal to conduct counter-intelligence operations against Argosino and Robles.
Of the money, Aguirre said, “It is a proof of corruption. It should be surrendered immediately for accounting and safekeeping. The longer it remains unsurrendered, the longer the doubt persist.”
There was nothing in these reports that showed that P50 million bribe money will be donated to the CBCP. As Aguirre said, they are going to collect the money for “accounting and safekeeping,” not for donation to the church.
We already busted a fake article from mochausonph.blogspot.com about Ronnie Dayan allegedly saying he’s ready for the death penalty as long as Senator Leila De Lima gets it first. It also published the fake news about Vice President Len Robredo criticizing the food from Duterte’s Kitchen.
Sources: (gmanetwork.com, philstar.com, news.abs-cbn.com, cnnphilippines.com, newsinfo.inquirer.net)
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