JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has expressed support on Senator's Leila de Lima's resolution seeking to probe into the alleged payoffs in the Bureau of Immigration (BI) involving gaming tycoon Jack Lam.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Aguirre said he wants the Senate to open the probe on the alleged bribe attempts in the BI, following the arrest of Lam's undocumented Chinese workers.
"Sana mabuksan na 'yung investigation para malaman natin anong ginawa niya bakit nagkaroon diyan ng malakihang illegal staying yung mga foreigners. What did she do during her incumbency as the Secretary of Justice. Meron bang nag-ninong diyan sa mga yan?" Aguirre said.
The Justice Secretary said he is inclined to believe that some officials were used to protect Lam's business.
"Siyempre naman. Hindi naman mangyayari yan without any protection," he added.
According to Aguirre, he had received information that there are certain politicians who protected the illegal business of Lam. He, however, failed to disclose their names.
On Monday, De Lima filed a Senate resolution calling for an investigation into the alleged bribery scandal involving commissioners and other officers in the BI.
The Senator said the public cannot just entrust such investigation to the DOJ's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is under Aguirre's watch, saying that "it's like entrusting a wolf to guard the sheep."
De Lima also questioned why Aguirre did not arrest Lam when the latter allegedly tried to bribe him through Sombrero.
Former BI Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles and BI Intelligence officer Charles Calima are now facing probe before the NBI after their alleged involvement in the P50-million bribe try of Lam, in exchange for the release of 600 out of the 1,316 Chinese nationals arrested at his gaming operations in Clark, Pampanga. (Sunnex)