Duterte orders seizure of gaming tycoon's assets

Duterte explained his order arose from the failure of Jack Lam, a Macau-based gaming tycoon, to pay the right taxes that deprived the government of huge potential revenue earnings.

He quoted Cesar Dulay, the chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), as saying: “We have been cheated for so long” by Lam, who fled the country after police and immigration agents arrested in late November more than 1,300 Chinese illegals working at his online gambling in a casino he operated in Pampanga province in Central Luzon.

“We have not been able to determine how much we lost...I am sequestering his (Lam) properties and maybe I want go get as much as I want,” Duterte said on Saturday after arriving in his hometown of Davao City in Mindanao from state visits to Cambodia and Singapore.

The government has since closed down the Lam casino he operated in Pampanga and another in Ilocos Norte province in Northern Luzon that have been patronised especially by “high rollers” from China and Taiwan.

Upon his arrival, Duterte also announced his dismissal of three Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials who allegedly extorted $1 million from Lam in exchange of the release of the more than 1,300 Chinese illegals arrested in November.

Dismissed as BI associate commissioners were Al Argosino and Michael Robles as well as retired police general Charles Calima as Duterte warned corrupt officials and employees, saying he was serious in giving Filipinos “a respite from corruption.”

He also admitted that Argosino and Robles were his “brods” (brothers) of a law fraternity along with Vitaliano Aguirre whom he had appointed as the secretary of the Department of Justice.

“So the law is the law and I told everyone including my relatives, do not do it. If you want a legitimate business, do it right and everything will okay,” Duterte said as he renewed his appeal to businessmen who had been victims of extortion to help him cleanse the bureaucracy.