Sen. Risa Hontiveros shared during a Senate hearing on Tuesday that an alleged illegal POGO hub in Lapu-lapu City, Cebu, attempted to bribe PAOCC officials.
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00:00How do I call him? Mr. Zhao or Mr. something else?
00:04May I ask your name? Can you call yourself Mr. Zhao?
00:08They call me Mr. Zhao.
00:10Mr. Zhao.
00:11They call me Mr. Zhao.
00:12They call me Boss Zhao. Mr. Zhao.
00:14Okay. I'm sorry, I can't call you Boss.
00:17Mr. Zhao. That's fine.
00:19Mr. Zhao.
00:21Okay.
00:22So, Mr. Zhao.
00:24It was written in the law that the operator of the alleged illegal pogo or alleged pogo hub in Lapu-Lapu City tried to bribe the people of Paok.
00:41In the news, is this true?
00:44And, Mr. Zhao, I remind you, you are under oath.
00:48This was actually caught on camera.
00:51So, on camera, it came out in the news that your granddaughter asked you,
00:58Can we fix this?
01:00Ms. Carolyn.
01:01Mr. Zhao, we saw in the news that the operators of the alleged illegal pogo or alleged pogo hub in Lapu-Lapu City tried to bribe the people of Paok.
01:22What do you have to say about this?
01:28My granddaughter was very worried about this.
01:33Why? Because they arrested a lot of people.
01:36I was the one who came after them.
01:38I was the one who came after them.
01:40When I came, I saw my granddaughter there, and my 70-year-old wife was also there.
01:49I told Mr. Casio, can you handle this separately?
01:55Because they are my family, my granddaughter.
01:59There are a lot of poor people among them.
02:02I told him to handle this separately.
02:04I asked this.
02:06My granddaughter, because I don't speak English,
02:08I don't know how my granddaughter translated it.
02:10I just said it like that.
02:12But I didn't mean to bribe.
02:14Because I know there are so many cameras there.
02:16I just wanted to bribe.
02:18I couldn't bribe under the camera.
02:20Right?
02:22So you said you did this to protect your wife and granddaughter.
02:26No, I didn't bribe.
02:28I said can you handle this separately?
02:30They said they wanted to take Manila.
02:32I said my wife is not in good health.
02:34The child is young.
02:36I said can you handle this separately?
02:38I didn't mean to bribe or anything else.
02:52They were caught.
02:54When I came there, my 70-year-old wife was there.
02:58Her body was weak.
03:00My granddaughter is also there.
03:02But what I wanted to do is,
03:04because my wife's body is weak,
03:08I wanted to have a separate arrangement for my wife and my granddaughter.
03:16So how much was this amount not exactly a bribe
03:20so as to have a separate arrangement for your 70-year-old wife and your granddaughter?
03:46One peso.
03:48One peso.
03:50So actually that money came from my son.
03:54Mr. Xiaolong.
03:56And the amount of money?
03:58And the amount of money is one million pesos.
04:00Wow.
04:02That's really a price for a separate arrangement.
04:08Earlier when I heard not exactly a bribe,
04:12in my heart, although I was angry, I laughed.
04:18Director Casio, you laughed when he said it was not exactly a bribe.
04:24Was it a bribe, Director Casio?
04:30There is no other way to interpret that, ma'am,
04:32because they attempted three times.
04:34Oh, so they attempted three times.
04:36Ms. Carolyn, yes, SP Pro Tempore.
04:38Can you ask Mr. Zhao who did he make the offer to?
04:46Who did he talk to?
05:08So this money was not thrown away in the room?
05:28So it was not a bribe money because they helped us find this amount.
05:54Who helped them find the money?
06:22Okay, so actually, according to Mr. Zhao,
06:26so this money, they were looking for this,
06:30and then the Filipino worker was able to find it,
06:34and then he submitted this money for another place for safekeeping.
06:39So it was not a bribe, but it was like transferring it to this person for safekeeping.
06:44Well, it's still, that's what we call a bribe.
06:49Offering money to Philippine government personnel
06:52who are perfectly capable of being humanitarian to a senior citizen
06:57or to a minor in exchange for special consideration.
07:02One million pesos.
07:04Mr. Zhao, were there other Philippine officials that you tried to bribe even then?
07:11And did you ever succeed in that attempted bribery?
07:17Mr. Zhao, were there other Philippine officials that you tried to bribe even then?
07:27Mr. Zhao, were there other Philippine officials that you tried to bribe even then?
07:48Okay, so before, I never had any bribe given to any government official.
08:07What I did only was to sponsor some of their activities.
08:13For example, I could donate some computers,
08:16and also because I am opening a restaurant business, sometimes I'll also give them food.
08:22Okay, but well, I won't go into the details of each of those sponsoring or donation,
08:31but we have a code of conduct and ethics of government officials and employees
08:38about not accepting gifts under very improper circumstances.