DOJ chief denies accepting bribe

MANILA, Philippines – Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II vehemently denied yesterday accusations thrown at him by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that he had a part in Chinese casino mogul Jack Lam’s alleged attempt to bribe immigration authorities late last year.

Aguirre stressed he did not take any amount from the P50-million cash handed over by Lam’s camp to dismissed Bureau of Immigration (BI) deputy commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles.

“Why are these senators insisting that I was involved in that bribery?” he asked reporters interviewing him yesterday. “Is it because they could not believe that I turned down the offer because if they were in my place, they would have taken the money?”

Aguirre said Argosino, Robles and other personalities involved in the controversy – dismissed BI intelligence chief Charles Calima Jr. and former police offivcer Wally Sombero, who supposedly served as Lam’s middleman – had already said the casino bribe money had not reached him.

The Department of Justice chief said he believes Argosino and Robles were just being forced to implicate him in the bribery controversy to get back at him for linking Sen. Leila de Lima to the illegal drug trade.

“They are offering the two deputy commissioners immunity in exchange for pinning me down,” Aguirre said.

But Trillanes, along with Sen. Francisco Pangilinan, denied this claim, stressing they had not offered the two dismissed immigration officials legislative immunity in the ongoing Senate probe on the bribery scandal.

Pangilinan branded Aguirre’s allegation “untrue, baseless and unfounded,” adding the justice secretary was being fed wrong information.

“The Senate does not have the power nor the authority to grant legislative immunity,” he said. “In fact, legislative immunity doesn’t exist in the Senate rule book, so the accusation is baseless.”

Pangilinan pointed out he does not want immunity for the two former BI officials, but the filing of criminal charges against them.

Pangilinan vowed to grill Aguirre in the next hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on Feb. 7 to find out where he got his “obviously false and unfounded” information.

Trillanes said Aguirre has a lot of explaining to do before the Senate panel, because of “so many holes in his testimony.”

“Aguirre is being haunted by the truth, that’s why he is getting paranoid,” he said in a text message.

He said Aguirre should explain why he met with Lam and the latter’s trusted aide Sombero in a hotel, when they were “suspects” in a case, and invited Argosino, his fraternity brother, tp the Nov. 26 meeting instead of BI Commissioner Jaime Morente.

He added the justice secretary must also clarify his instruction to Argosino to take care of matters before the latter met with Sombero and allegedly took the bribe with Robles hours after their meeting.

“How did he know the amount of the supposed bribe of P50 million to P100 million as early as Dec. 1, when nobody supposedly told him about it?” Trillanes wondered.

Coward Trillanes

But Aguirre assailed Trillanes’ making the accusations against him only after he had left the Senate hearing, calling such act as “cowardice.”

“He was already there when I was speaking. Why did he wait for me to leave to attend the Cabinet meeting at Malacañang instead of asking me face-to-face?” Aguirre said.

He branded Trillanes as “sundalong kanin,” (mediocre soldier), “dilawan” (yellow or cowardly), and “gagong senador (stupid senator).” 

During the hearing, Argosino told senators Aguirre was aware of Lam’s bribe offer. He quoted the DOJ chief, a fraternity brother in Lex Talionis of San Beda College of Law, as telling him, “kayo na ang bahala dyan (you take care of that).”

Failures of De Lima

As for Sen. de Lima, Aguirre said she should instead explain what she failed to do during her term as DOJ chief that allowed Lam’s illegal online casino operations in Clark Field, Pampanga to flourish.

“De Lima should better explain her culpability in Jack Lam’s illegal casino. Why did the illegal online gambling last that long during her time in the DOJ?” he querried.

Asked if he believes De Lima benefitted from Lam’s operations, Aguirre replied: “That’s very possible.” – With Paolo Romero