Domingo’s married daughter Karen Gandamra, however, reportedly merely took over the post only a month ago from former BI Angeles City field office chief Janice Christine de Jesus-Corres who was subject of a formal complaint from her staff for alleged anomalies in approving documents of Chinese nationals at Fontana, owned by Chinese national Jack Lam known by his Chinese name Lam Yin Lok.
Pres. Duterte has ordered the arrest of Lam for bribery and economic sabotage in relation to his online gambling operations in Fontana.
Gandarma could not be contacted yesterday, as her personnel in her office at Building 2127 of the stateowned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said she was in a meeting elsewhere.
Argentina Lacanlale, assistant chief of the BI field office in Angeles and one of the nine who signed a complaint against Corres in November, 2015, said after their complaint, Corres was assigned to the one-stop-shop at Clark.
“Since then, the jurisdiction over the Chinese at Fontana was removed from our field office,” she said.
The complaint, addressed to then Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison, noted that Corres is married to Albert Corres, a Fontana employee in charge of relaying documents of Chinese nationals for processing of the BI then headed by his wife.
The personnel of Gandarma’s office declined to give any information on the status of over 1,300 Chinese nationals now detained in a holding area at the Fontana Convention Center after they were rounded up in a raid of allegedly illegal online gambling operations in Fontana the other week.
Domingo was among the earliest appointees of Pres. Duterte after he assumed the presidency. She was at one time also immigration commissioner.
Justice Sec. Vitaliano Aguirre recently quoted Domingo as saying that Fontana management had offered her an apparent bribe worth one percent of operations at Fontana.
In their complaint letter they signed in November last year, Lacanlale and co-workers Michael Vincent Dizon, Lailanie Mercado, Marco Dayan, Lyka Marie Aguirre, Myra Santiago, Roderick Rodriguez, Lerma Arbitrario, and Romeo Quizon sought the investigation of Corres on the questinable approval of visas of Chinese nationals based in Fontana.
Their complaint said “Corres’ spouse, Albert Corres, who works for Fontana Leisure Estate prevalently sends applications for tourist visa extensions without the personal appearances of the foreign applicants and oftentimes with insuffi cient documentary requirements attached to their application forms.”
The complaint then noted that “the volume of Chinese passports that Mr. Albert Corres regularly applies extension for almost every week number from 100 to 200 pieces. Given such volume, it is highly dubious that all passports are indeed from Chinese nationals entitled to the leniency afforded to Fontana Leisure Estate.”
After they submitted their complaint to Mison, Corres was moved to the BI one-stopshop nearer Fontana at Clark which was tasked to process the visas of the Chinese nationals in Fontana.
“We never had anything to do with the Chinese nationals at Fontana since then,” said Lacanlale.
In a letter last March 8 to Immigration Commissioner Ronaldo Geron who had replaced Mison, Raquel Rosario Marayag, acting director of the Offi ce of the Ombudsman for Luzon, requested for the “status of the said complaint, considering that the same issues were raised at the present complaint.”
The letter cited allegations that Corres, including “taking advantage of her official position in the BI Angeles City field office and extending unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to the clients of her husband who is connected with Fontana Leisure Estate by giving unusual courtesies and leniency to the applications filed on behalf of Fontana Lesure park and in the grant of tourist visa extension applications of aliens claiming under its name, to the extent of disregarding the requirements and standard operating procedure of the BI.”
Corres could not be contacted for her side at presstime.
