President Rodrigo Duterter’s fraternity brothers, former immigration associate commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles, were the first to face, to be prosecuted, and later to be convicted of plunder in the Duterte presidency.

Found guilty of accepting a P50 million bribe from Wally Sombero –middleman of casino tycoon Jack Lam who wanted his Chinese workers released by the immigration bureau – Argosino and Robles are two of only seven people convicted of plunder since it became law in 1991.

They made a mistake of accepting the bags of money at the City of Dreams where there was CCTV. Their defense was that they took the money as evidence against Sombero. The Sandiganbayan was not convinced.

But not all plunder cases are this quick – only three and a half years in trial – nor this easy.

Not all cases of corruption are cases of plunder. Plunder has a high threshold and several elements need to be proven.

For this episode, we talk to former justice undersecretary Jose “JJ” Justiniano, who was a deputized prosecutor in the pork barrel scam cases which were started by the Aquino government.

For past podcast episodes:

• Episode 1 Part 1: Supreme Court’s most controversial decisions
• Episode 1 Part 2: Department of Justice’s evolving definition of warrantless arrests
• Episode 2: The rule of law in the time of the coronavirus
• Episode 3: Pandemic and the great wall of free speech
• Episode 4: Will petition to disclose Duterte health work?
• Episode 5: Legal difficulties of a prisoner mass release
• Episode 6: Breaking down the ABS-CBN franchise legal and political issues
• Episode 7: ABS-CBN and the 3 tangled branches of government
• Episode 8: Are extraordinary writs still effective in the time of Duterte?
• Episode 9: Dissecting anti-terror bill and threats to freedoms
• Episode 10: The problems with the Cybercrime Law
• Episode 11: Can we trust the gov’t panel probing drug war deaths?
• Episode 12: Why press freedom is legally protected
• Episode 13: What is People’s Initiative and will it work for ABS-CBN?
• Episode 14: The new push for death penalty
• Episode 15: A State of terror
• Episode 16: GCTA’s thorn – Do bad men deserve good things?
• Episode 17: Policies beyond body count of Duterte’s drug war
• Episode 18: Can we really bring Xi Jinping to the ICC?
• Episode 19: Philippine courts and the death of baby River
• Episode 20: Deep dive into anti-terror law IRR
• Episode 21: Supreme Court and the SALN challenge
• Episode 22: Where PH stands in fight for climate justice
• Episode 23: How to legally fight red-tagging
• Episode 24: Hope for the Rule of Law with Dino de Leon
• Episode 25: Summary of anti-terror law petitions
• Episode 26: May it please the Court – the anti-terror law orals
• Episode 27: Investigating Duterte’s drug war using hard data
• Episode 28: Your Honors, they are killing lawyers
• Episode 29: Choosing who sits on the Bench
• Episode 30: Lugaw, RA 11332, and common sense policy
• Episode 31: Understanding electoral protests
• Episode 32: Captain Ri and all the president’s men
• Episode 33: The law of NTF-ELCAC
• Episode 34: Lawyering under threat
• Episode 35: Duterte’s ICC prospects

If you have tips and suggestions for episodes, email the host at lian.buan@rappler.com. – Rappler.com