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Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II will recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte the immediate relief of two deputy immigration commissioners accused of extorting P50 million from Chinese gaming tycoon Jack Lam.

“I am going to recommend to the President (their) immediate relief . . . It would be the President who will act on this because it was the President who appointed them,” Aguirre said Tuesday.

Aguirre made the statement after news reports said Immigration Deputy Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles were caught on video accepting money from former police officer Wally Sombero, allegedly acting on behalf of Lam.

Lam fled the country on Nov 29 but Duterte said last week he sent feelers that we wanted to surrender.

Argosino and Robles went to the justice department to turn over P30 million out of the P48 million to Aguirre. They claimed it was “bribe” money from Sombero in exchange of helping Lam to secure license for his gambling operations.

“This is our best evidence against the number 1 illegal online operator who has never been charged during two decades of operations only during the term of President Duterte,” Argosino said.

Aguirre said the department accepted the money for safekeeping and “without prejudice to the ongoing investigation that is being currently made by the NBI and the BI.”

Asked about his reaction, Aguirre said he “felt betrayed. You felt that they were not following the order of the president to go after corruption.” Argosino and Robles belong to the law fraternity where Duterte, Aguirre and several cabinet members belong. They were part of the legal team during the campaign period for the 2016 elections.

Aguirre said it was Sombero who first told him about the alleged extortion sometime early this month.

In a press conference in Intramuros, Argosino and Robles, who have both gone on leave, admitted getting P48-million, not P50-million from Sombero, to build a case against Lam.

The deputy commissioners claimed that of the P50-million, Sombero took P2 million as his commission.

“While Deputy Commissioners Argosino and Robles had acknowledged receipt of custody of P48-million on 27 November, 2016 with Wally Sombero getting P2-million as future evidence of corruption of public officials, the series of events that transpired showed a continuing link of corruption involving gambling magnate Jack Lam, his two interpreters Norman Ng and Alexander Yu and General Charles Calima,” Argosino and Robles said in a statement.

Calima is the acting immigration intelligence chief. Calima, Argosino and Robles were ordered to give their side within 24 hours by Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente on Monday.

Earlier reports said the two immigration department officials allegedly demanded P50 million to release of 600 out of 1,316 undocumented Chinese workers who were caught engaging in illegal online gambling on November 24 at the Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino in Clark operated by Lam.

Argosino and Robles said the case is a continuing investigation about using illegal aliens and illegal online gambling operation as well as how during the past administration it would thrive through illegal pay-offs.

“I'm going to recommend the immediate relief as well of officials who might have been involved . . . aside from these two,” Aguirre said.

Argosino and Robles said the “ongoing investigation could have been concluded earlier than today.” .

But they opted to continue for a couple of days after Calima informed them of audio recordings in his laptop of the November 27 meeting.

The two claimed Calima expressed disappointment over his exclusion from the negotiation with Sombero and demanded money o be given to a columnist and Sombero.

“We decided to give in to Calima’s request of P18 million,” Robles said.

The two officials said they filed criminal case before the Para?aque Prosecutors Office against Lam, Sombero, Calima and two identified as Norman Ng and Alexander Yu for violation of the Anti-Wiretapping Act and corruption of public officials. DMS