Saturday, June 15, 2024

Septuagenarian Notes (7) SHALL THE PHL BAN, DISMANTLE, KICK POGOS OUT OF PHL?

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. #