Jack Lam won’t be back in PH soon, says lawyer | ABS-CBN

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Jack Lam won’t be back in PH soon, says lawyer

Jack Lam won’t be back in PH soon, says lawyer

Dharel Placido,

ABS-CBN News

 | 

Updated Feb 16, 2017 10:13 PM PHT

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Macau-based gambling tycoon Jack Lam . File Photo

MANILA – Macau-based gambling tycoon Jack Lam won’t be back in the Philippines soon, his lawyer said Thursday.

“It is the consensus of Mr. Lam’s lawyers both abroad as well as here for him to decline any invitation to return,” Lam’s lawyer Raymond Fortun told a Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing.

Lam is at the center of a bribery-extortion controversy involving Bureau of Immigration (BI) commissioners after it was discovered that he coughed up at least P60 million for the release of Chinese nationals working in his casino in Pampanga without proper travel and work documents.

P50 million of the supposed amount ended up with former BI deputy commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles, who both admitted to receiving the cash but only to use it as evidence against Lam.

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The remaining P10 million stayed with former police officer Wally Sombero, who turned over the P50 million to the two immigration officials at a Parañaque casino.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered Lam’s arrest, citing the gambling tycoon’s alleged tax deficiencies and his alleged middleman Sombero’s supposed attempt to bribe Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

Lam’s business partner, Charlie 'Atong' Ang, said the threats to arrest Lam prompted the latter to cancel his trip back to the Philippines.

Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Richard Gordon said he would have wanted for Lam to go back to the Philippines to air his side, even as he slammed the government’s decision to issue arrest orders against Lam despite the absence of a formal complaint.

“Dapat hindi basta nagbibigay ng arrest order. Dahil kung bibigyan ng arrest order, hindi na babalik iyan,” Gordon said.

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