By Philip M. Lustre Jr.
EVERY
conceivable crime is being attributed to the Philippine Offshore Gaming
Operators (POGOs) in the country. Nonpayment of taxes, noncompliance of labor
laws, refusal to employ Filipino workers, human trafficking, kidnapping,
murder, torture, swindling, prostitution, illegal detention, and other crimes
of violence – these are among the crimes allegedly committed by POGOs,
specifically the unlicensed ones. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime
Commission (PAOCC), the state agency that probes and prosecutes criminal
elements in the country, reported that certain POGOs have aligned with local
criminal syndicates, leading to perceptions these POGOs cause social problems
here.
The emerging
key question: whether to impose ban on these POGOs, dismantle and kick them out
of the country, or keep these POGOs, but institute pivotal reforms and
stringent regulations on them. Opinions are divided at the moment.
As horror
stories flood mass media about their crime-laden operations, the emerging
opinion is to declare POGOs a threat to national security, ban and kick them
out of the country for good, and seize and confiscate their property here.
Senators Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian are among the lawmakers, who push
their dismantling.
Rep. Wilbert
Lee of the Agri Party List said in a recent media forum that most lawmakers
agree that it is time to kick them out of the country. The taxes they remit,
the jobs they give to Filipino laborers, and the benefits they are supposed to
yield to the national economy are minimal, Lee argued. A total ban on POGOs is
most appropriate because the negative effects of their presence here outweigh
the positive.
For his part,
Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz, PAOCC chief, acknowledged the enormous issues
these POGOs have and claimed in a recent separate media forum that his office
would initiate seizure initiatives against the pieces of property these POGOs
have obtained. The BBM administration has yet to make a final decision.
Dr. Winston
John Casio, PAOCC spokesman, said 107 of the 402 POGOs with cancelled license
continue to operate here. Only four of this number were raided and closed for good.
Law implementation is not easy, Casio admitted, as he rued PAOCC’s dependence
on other state agencies to fulfill its mandate to get rid of organized crimes
in the country.
These include
the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI),
Department of Justice (DoJ), Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), Bureau of
Immigration and Deportation, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming
Corporation (Pagcor), the regulator of gaming business in the country. PAOCC,
he said, has only 47 employees and they include menial workers like four
drivers, an auto mechanic, and security guards.
For his part,
Alejandro Tengco, Pagcor chair and chief executive officer, has come to the
defense of the POGOs, sounding unabashedly as main apologist. The legitimate
and licensed offshore gaming operators pose no threat to national security, he
proclaimed, as he pointed instead to “alien hacking and scam syndicates” as the
real danger.
Tengco,
claiming their positive contributions to the national economy, said licensed
operators – previously known as POGOs but now referred to as IGLs (Internet
Gaming Licensees) – have remitted gross revenues of P20 billion in 2023. Tengco did not give any data of target
revenue collections as contrasted with actual collections.
“To us, the
real threat are the alien hacking and scam syndicates, which operate
underground, and they are the ones that our law enforcement agencies are trying
to locate and dismantle,” Tengco said. He does not provide the whys and
wherefores of the underground POGOs operating in the country.
“We should
not blame and demonize our licensed gaming operators because these are closely
monitored by PAGCOR,” he said. “Our licensees pay taxes, and they help provide
legitimate jobs and livelihood to a lot of people.”
According to
Tengco, PAGCOR has begun embedding monitoring teams in the physical venues of
all licensed gaming operators, including land-based casinos, to ensure
compliance with the terms of their licenses. Those IGLs found violating the
provisions of their licenses are issued with fines and, in the most serious
offenses, have their licenses revoked and bonds forfeited.
Tengco said:
“We do not need to outlaw POGOs; what we need to do is intensify anti-crime
operations against suspected alien hackers, against scammers and
cyber-criminals who are usually hiding in highly secured buildings and
compounds. These criminal syndicates are not engaged in offshore gaming at all,
and even if they are, they are doing it illegally. So, they are the real
threat, and we must go after them with everything that we have.”
POGOS are
online gambling firms operating here mainly for foreign customers, largely from
China. These POGOs are licensed by Pagcor, the regulator. POGOs have been in
the country since 2003 but their operations were largely confined in special
economic zones (SEZs). They numbered then a few dozens. In 2016, when Rodrigo
Duterte became president, POGOs proliferated to indicate his closeness and
political alignment with China.
By 2019,
their number grew astonishingly, making Duterte as sort of their father and
sponsor in the country.
While Duterte
cultivated the unabated entry of POGO workers, mostly Chinese nationals, and
unrestrained growth of POGOs in the country during his incumbency, China was
said to have frown on them. China officially prohibits gambling, as its
citizens are discouraged to engage in gambling. Those POGOs essentially
represent the dark side of Chinese investments in the country. China has
ambivalent attitude.
It appears
that by allowing Duterte to deal with POGOs, the latter would be satisfied by a
new steady stream of income from them. There is no proof to show the Chinese
leniency, although it would appear that this is an arrangement that would
placate Duterte, who is perceived to be an ally of China in the Philippines. It
was boom time for POGOs during Duterte’s incumbency. China is officially
against gambling, but it allows Duterte to reap benefits from them by not
sanctioning their operations in the Philippines.
For their
part, a pair of two senators expressed half-baked ideas to keep POGOs in the
country. Sen. Imee Marcos, who has aligned with the Dutertes, argued to keep
them but only after imbuing them with a strong resolve and social responsibility
to provide revenues to the ailing national economy. She did not give details on
how it could be pursued, but offer the general statement that the government
should only kick the POGOs out of the country, if they are proven to have
failed to yield positive contributions.
Tolentino,
another rabid Duterte ally, sounded part of Duterte’s echo chamber, saying that
should the Marcos government close down those POGOs and ban them on national
soil, the government should have a transition plan to relocate the workers.
Social media netizens criticized Tolentino for his ill-conceived proposal
because most POGOs employ Chinese nationals because their main market is China.
The few Filipino workers are left to do menial jobs. His proposal hardly gained
traction except laughter and harsh words.
The POGOs
existence came into national consciousness after PAOCC, with help from other
uniformed personnel, raided on March 13, the POGO complex owned by Zun Yuan
Technology, Inc. in its headquarters at A1 Commercial Bldg. in the town of
Bamban in Tarlac. “It was a raid,” the PAOCC said. “It was a shakedown,“ said
Zun Yuan, which claimed it was done without any coordination with the Bamban
Police Department. Later, the entire Bamban police force was relieved and replaced
by a new batch of police officers.
Zun Yuan was
one of the IGLs based in the country. It operated electronic cockfighting
matches and various forms of e-gambling operations for patrons in China. The
PAOCC composite team of law enforcers raided the Bamban POGO complex on the
basis of a search warrant issued by a judge in Bulacan Regional Trial Court
(RTC). Zun Yuan claimed the raiding team only found low-caliber guns that
security guards usually possess and not assault weapons as claimed by the raiding
team.
The PAOCC
conducted the March 13 raid on the basis of a complaint of a Vietnamese
employee, who claimed to law authorities of maltreatment allegedly committed by
managers and their henchmen in its operations. The raid subsequently led to the
unmasking of Alice Guo, the mayor of Bamban, who authorized the POGO
operations.
Guo has been
suspended by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for
giving unauthorized license to Zun Yuan to operate. Zun Yuan alleged it did not
violate the law because Pagcor gave it a provisional Internet Gaming License
sometime in Oct., 2023. PAOCC closed its operations for good.
Consequently,
the Senate on Hontiveros’s initiative called an inquiry “in aid of legislation”
on POGO operations in the country, and Guo was among the public officials, who
were called to explain Zun Yuan’s operations. The firm has established its
complex at the back of the Bamban municipal hall. Guo’s testimony before the
investigating lawmakers had many holes, raising questions if she was a genuine
Filipino.
The Senate
inquiry “in aid of legislation” raised many questions on how Guo was elected a
mayor official of Bamban. Guo appeared to have failed to convince the Senate
that she is indeed a Filipino. She failed to answer adequately questions on her
personal life, including parentage, education, and how she grew up in Tarlac to
become an elected official.
Rodolfo
Medrano, a critic, said in his social media accountd: “It appears now that the
Alice Guo-POGO scandal is just the tip of the iceberg of a much bigger POGO
crime syndicate controlled by Chinese crime lords in collaboration with local
crime syndicates. The POGO-web also involves politicians, government agency
employees, and local businessmen."
While the
Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality, was
busy investigating Guo and the Bamban POGO complex, the PAOCC was planning a
much bigger raid on the entire POGO hub not just in one town or city but Central
Luzon. The raid involved the 100-hectare Lucky South 99 complex facility that
overlaps in the town of Porac and Angeles City in Pampanga. For five weeks, the
PAOCC and its allied law enforcement agencies planned the raids in the
sprawling facility that houses 46 buildings.
On June 4,
the raid took place both in a POGO complex facility in the adjoining town of
Porac and Angeles City. It almost did not occur because Judge Ma. Belinda Rama
of Branch 14 of Malolos Regional Trial Court (RTC) suspended the search warrant
in the morning of June 5. She said its suspension came after she failed to list
down what would be searched. It would have been tantamount to a “general search
warrant,” according to Casio. In the
afternoon of June 5, Rama withdrew it.
The PAOC C
found Judge Robert Alexander Malig of Branch 45 of San Fernando City RTC, who
promptly issued a new search warrant, which the PAOCC used in its raid against
Lucky South 99. What was deswcribed an “internal leak” caused concern since it
somehow “compromised’ the raid, according to Casio in another media forum.
The raid on
POGO complex in Porac-Angeles City area yielded many details that could reveal
the extent of the Chinese controlled POGOs’ influence in the country. Hours
before the 8 pm raid, owners and managers of that POGO complex disappeared,
obviously pointing to a tip-off they received purportedly from the law
enforcers involved in the raiding team.
They PAOC
determined they knew the raid, Casio said. The issue of leaked information is
being looked into by the PAOCC, according to Casio.
Hontiveros
said in a statement that the raid, although conducted with thoroughness and
zeal, exposed what she called “heinous” crimes like scamming, torture, and
human trafficking. The raid rescued nearly 190 foreign nationals, who worked
there. Among them is a company called Lucky South 99, whose application to
operate as an IGL was denied in May. Its premises were reported by the PAOCC to
be “the biggest facility in Pampanga with a reported total number of 46
buildings including villas and other structures, as well as a golf course.”
On June 5,
the Senate held an executive session, which was participated by Hontiveros,
Gatchalian, and several senators and top officials of state agencies that
perform functions related to national security like National Security Council
(NSC), Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLOC), Intelligence Service of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and least known agencies like Inter-agency
Council against Trafficking. The discussed among other things the crimes
allegedly committed in and associated with POGOs. They included crimes like
cyberscamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, illegal
detention, among others.
As narrated
by Hontiveros, the executive session somehow crystallized the suggestion that
the NSC initiates the elevation to the Office of the President of the issues
against POGOs into a threat to national security. In a media forum, Casio
confirmed the suggestion, indicating the
PAOCC agreed to the proposed elevation.
If they have
become threats to national security, the Marcos administration is expected to
come out with stringent policies, which could include their virtual dismantling
of their operations here and expulsion from the country. At the moment, it
could be asserted that they are being keenly watched by state agencies dealing
with national security.
The executive
session discussed the illegal revenue flows of those POGOs, confirming the view
that this is an issue which was closely being monitored by the AMLC along with
ISAPF. They were looking particularly the involvement of Guo and other POGOs
into the money laundering schemes, Hontiveros said. She noted the prevalent
view that Guo had failed to prove she is indeed a Filipino national. The
overriding suspicion is that she is a Chinese national, who has been planted by
China as an agent to influence the course of political developments here.
The
subsequent search operations on the June 4 raid of the Lucky South 99 facility
yielded surprising discoveries, which included the following:
- The PAOCC raiding team expected to
have rescued at least 1,000 foreign workers, but found out only about nearly
190 workers, as the other including its owners and managers disappeared in the
dark of the night presumably because of the leaked information.
- The rescued foreign workers were
mostly Chinese with a sprinkling of other foreigners from neighboring countries
like Malaysians; Vietnamese, and Burmese nationals. Some workers came from the
Bamban POGO facility but transferred to the other facility when the former was
raided and subsequently closed down.
- The raiding team has yet to complete
the search in all 46 buildings in the complex, but so far, they finished half
of them and found out some incriminating pieces of evidence to indicate dubious
operations. They found out broken baseball bats to show they could have been
used to torture certain workers. At least three rooms have blood stains to show
they were used as torture chambers by unidentified people involved in their
operations.
- Certain rooms were discovered to have
illegal drugs to indicate drug trafficking in the facility and frequent use
among workers to sustain nighttime operations. Certain rooms were found to have
sex toys and other paraphernalia to indicate prostitution there.
- The raiding team also found uniforms
of China’s People’ Liberation Army (PLA), to indicate the connection of certain
workers to China’s military.
- One of the arrested foreign nationals
was a Chinese workers, who was identified as a fugitive in mainland China.
The bureaucratic
machinery has been mobilized to establish the extent of Chinese infiltration to
the country’s body politic. So far, it has been established China’s presence
and influence through the POGOs here.
It has been established
the many aspects of Chinese criminal activity here. The evolution of a state
policy on POGOs here is an ongoing initiative. It points to a consensus to ban
them, but certain elements could throw a monkey wrench to favor stricter and
more stringent rules to keep. Their attitude has been predicted. Those POGOs
siphon Chinese money out of China, not ours. #
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