Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre has dismissed from service Bureau of Immigration (BI) Intelligence Unit Chief Charles Calima.
This comes, following the admission of BI Assistant Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles on Tuesday that they accepted P 30-million bribe allegedly from Macau-based gambling tycoon Jack Lam, in exchange for the release of more than 1,300 undocumented employees who were arrested for working illegally in his online gambling casino in Pampanga.
The two immigration officials had said, the P 30-million cash which they showed in a press briefing was part of Lam’s bribe money that amounted to a total of P 50 million.
They had claimed that Calima, who is a retired police general, had taken P 18-million worth of bribe money.
Argosino and Lam said, they accepted the bribe money ‘as evidence’ but they did not arrest former police official Wally Sombero, who delivered the funds, as they were supposedly still collating proof that will link Sombero to Lam.
Aguirre says, the money surrendered by Argosino and Robles is now with the DOJ for safekeeping.
