Sombero given wrong end of the bargain

The Sandiganbayan erred in convicting former police Col. Wally Sombero along with former Immigration Commissioners Al Argosino and Mike Robles for plunder.

The good justices who tried the plunder case should have considered the fact that Sombero acted as messenger for the briber of Argosino and Robles, casino operator Jack Lam, and the whistle-blower against the two top immigration officials.

This columnist exposed the P50-million bribery after Sombero approached me and spilled the beans on the two commissioners. I was with the Philippine Daily Inquirer then.

Sombero’s grave mistake was to backtrack later that there was no bribery, apparently after he was cajoled by the two officials’ fraternity “brods” at the Lex Talionis.

Some of these brods are themselves officials in the current administration.

I was the one who surrendered Sombero to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

The NBI who would have made Sombero into a state witness against Argosino and Robles – until he recanted on his testimony.

For flip-flopping, that’s what Sombero got. I don’t know if he deserves it, but he certainly was given the wrong end of the bargain.

*      *      *

I pity Mike Robles because he wasn’t supposed to be at the City of Dreams hotel complex where the bribe money changed hands.

Before he was indicted along with Argosino and Sombero, Mike told me that he was about to go to bed on that fateful night when Al called him.

He was bone-tired that night after taking part in a shooting competition at Camp Karingal in Quezon City and wanted to go to bed early.

But then Argosino called and told him to help him with some “errands.”

Being Argosino’s frat brod and fellow commissioner, Robles said he couldn’t say no. Robles brought his brother with him.

It was only then that he saw oodles and oodles of money in several bags. He carried two of the bags.

The closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) recorded the money changing hands from Sombero to Argosino and Robles.

Robles, a government prosecutor (fiscal), was crying as he told me his story.

I interviewed him in a restaurant in Quezon City upon his request.

*      *      *

Argosino’s father, a former clerk of court in a town in Quezon province, probably died of a broken heart.

On his deathbed, the old man said, “Napag-utusan lang ang anak ko (My son was just following orders),” a family friend, who didn’t want to be identified, told me.

It was not known who gave the young Argosino the orders.

*      *      *

Retired police general Charles Calima, chief of intelligence at the Bureau of Immigration at the time, was informed by Sombero that a second tranche of money would be given to Robles and Argosino.

Calima dispatched his men to the City of Dreams, but the deal didn’t push through after then-justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre announced to the media that Jack Lam was trying to bribe him.

Lam’s casino inside the Clark Economic Zone was raided by immigration and NBI agents to ferret out overstaying Mainland Chinese employees.

Calima was at first suspected to be involved in the humongous bribery, but he was able to prove that he was performing his job.

However, Calima was not reinstated as immigration intelligence chief after he was cleared.

*      *      *

In the main street of Cebu City, a giant billboard announces in big bold letters: KAY SARA, WIN TAYO.

The pictures of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian are below the bold letters and in their background is the sun in the Philippine flag.

Sara is being touted as a presidential candidate; Win as her running mate.

Too early for election campaign. Too gross for these two personalities to allow their followers, “friends” and paid hacks to put up that billboard.

Commission on Elections, take note!

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Many years ago, a handsome politician, who was very much married, impregnated his secretary.

Scared that his wife would find out about his philandering, he asked his best friend, also a politician, to marry his secretary to hide his misdeed.

The other politician acceded to the request. “Catcher,” people who knew of the arrangement would call the second politician.

It was love for his best friend that made the other politician marry a woman who was impregnated by another man.

The catcher had a girlfriend in a Visayan province who reportedly wept uncontrollably after she was jilted.

That was the genesis of the Visayan song which goes like this: “Ay, ay kalisod, kalisod ning gibiyaan (Oh, how painful it is to be spurned)!”

The love child also became a politician later, and his offspring followed in their father’s footsteps.

A naughty broadsheet columnist, who was a retired Supreme Court justice, had a word war with one of the love child’s sons. The columnist said, “Your real grandfather must be turning in his grave.”

That was one of the scandals in the pre-War days.