Zhao also denied attempting to bribe government personnel involved in the Tourist Garden Hotel raid to the tune of P1 million.
“This sum of money is actually not a bribe because what I wanted is, remember, I came there after they were caught. When I came there, my 70-year-old wife is there and her body was weak and my granddaughter was also there but what I wanted to do because her body is weak, I wanted to have a separate arrangement for my wife and my granddaughter,” he said in Chinese.
“This money, they were looking for this and then a Filipino worker was able to find it and they submitted this money for another place for safekeeping. It was not bribe but transferring the money for safekeeping,” he added.
Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) spokesperson Winston Casio said Zhao’s granddaughter attempted to bribe personnel involved in the operation three times.
“There is no other way to interpret that because they attempted three times,” said Casio.
Meanwhile, Zhao’s son, Zhao Long alias Xiao Long, denied during the hearing knowing Cassandra Li Ong, the authorized representative of Lucky South 99, as well as dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.
Guo and Ong also said they never met Zhao Long.
Zhao Long is among those charged with qualified human trafficking in relation to the raided illegal Lapu-Lapu Pogo hub.
Last week, Casio identified Zhao Long as among the owners of Lucky South 99.
He said Zhao Long escaped during the raid in the illegal Porac Pogo hub. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)
