SOME Filipino workers displaced by the closure of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) facilities that were raided by authorities have banded together and are now running their own online scam operations, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) yesterday said.
PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio, in a radio interview, said they discovered this during the raids they conducted on online scam networks in the past months.
“These were run by Filipinos. These are veterans who came from illegal POGOs, gambling dens and online scam hubs,” Casio said.
He said he has expressed as early as last year his fears about Filipinos learning from the Chinese how to engage in illegal activities.
“Some are already trying. If the question is why, there’s a lot of money involved,” he said, referring to the profit from these activities.
“We don’t want a culture of scamming to become indigenous in the country. That is why we continue to operate against it, no matter how tiring it is,” he added.
Casio is likewise not ruling out the possibility that POGO stakeholders will support candidates in next year’s elections.
“If the question is, are they fielding candidates now, that’s not impossible,” he said, noting that some politicians have earlier accepted what he called as “benefits” from POGO players for allowing their operations in their areas.
“Its possible that the local officials they (POGO players) have helped over the years, before, are still being supported (by the POGO players) because we’re talking of hundreds of millions to billions of pesos profit here,” said Casio.
He cited the case of Alice Guo, who has been dismissed as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac for her reported participation in the illegal operation of POGOs that were raided in her area.
“There are many intangible factors to this problem (on POGO). We’re talking of huge amount of money here. Secondly, the network and connection they have built over time,” Casio said.
In a television interview on Sunday, Casio termed the fielding or supporting of candidates in the elections by POGO players in the elections as “POGO politics.”
“There’s POGO politics…The Chinese around the corner, the Chinese syndicates, it’s possible they have fielded or (are) supporting (candidates),” he said.
EMPLOYMENT VISAS
The Bureau of Immigration yesterday said over 10,000 visas of foreign POGO workers have been downgraded as the October 15 deadline for them to voluntarily do so looms.
In an advisory, BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado reiterated that there will be no extensions for filing, and those who will file after the said deadline will be ordered to leave the country.
“To date, more than 10,000 POGO workers have already filed for visa downgrading, and the agency expects this number to increase as the deadline approaches,” Viado said.
“We are expediting the downgrading process to comply with the President’s directive. We encourage POGO workers to file as early as possible to avoid complications,” he added.
Visa downgrading allows foreign nationals to revert their status from a work visa to a temporary visitor visa, enabling them to remain legally in the Philippines for 59 days while winding down their affairs.
The 59-day period from the deadline aligns with the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who ordered foreign POGO workers to leave the country by the end of the year during his third State of the Nation Address last July.
Viado said procedures have already been simplified to ensure compliance, adding that those who fail to downgrade by the deadline or leave the country by December 31 will face deportation and blacklisting to prevent their reentry to the country.
He added that the BI is working with POGO companies to set up schedules to enable the bureau to implement downgraded visa status and issue exit clearances on-site.
“Representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment will also be present during these service days to accept surrendered Alien Employment Permits from POGO workers,” he said.
As part of the government’s initiative to wind down POGO operations, an interagency task force composed of the BI, Department of Justice, DOLE, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, and other key agencies has been formed to oversee the closure of POGOs and assist affected workers.
SENATE PROBE
Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said he is expecting the Senate Committee on Women to terminate the Senate investigation on POGO operations, saying has observed that “more significant issues at hand” are no longer being discussed.
Ejercito, in an interview last Sunday, said the true intention of the Senate inquiry is to unmask the people behind the operations of illegal POGOs and their possible cohorts in the government, but these are not being tackled anymore.
“Minsan parang nagiging talk show na. Sana i-wrap up na ito dahil baka malihis pa sa tunay nating pakay na matukoy ang international crime syndicate na sa tingin natin ay tunay na nasa likod nito (Sometimes, the hearings turn into a talk show. I hope we can wrap this up because of the risk of diverting attention from the more important issues like identifying the international criminal syndicate which I believe is behind the illegal operations),” he said.
The Senate Committee on Women has been leading in the investigations into the crimes associated with the POGO industry. It should have wrapped up the hearings last month but its chair, Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, decided to have another inquiry to give former PNP chief Benjamin Acorda and others whose names were mentioned by resource persons a chance to answer the allegations.
Acorda’s name came out during the hearing last month after photos of him were shown together with suspected illegal POGO operator Tony Yang, elder brother of former president Duterte’s economic adviser Michael Yang; and Sual, Pangasinan Mayor Liseldo Calugay, who was also implicated in the alleged illegal POGO activities of Guo Hua Ping aka Alice Guo.
Another hearing is scheduled today (October 8).
Ejercito said he is confident that the people behind the operations and those giving protection to illegal POGOs will soon be unearthed.
He, however, said that “relevant” government agencies should take over from the Senate probe if further investigations are needed to make sure that “appropriate actions are properly taken.”
He again appealed to all resource persons, including Guo, to provide the committee all the necessary information to bring the investigation to a close since he believes that the dismissed Bamban mayor was just used by international criminal syndicates.
He also urged law enforcement agencies to double their efforts in shutting down POGO hubs which are still operating.
“Let’s make sure that we do not get sidetracked. Our goal remains clear: unmask the real perpetrators and dismantle their entire operations,” he said. — With Ashzel Hachero and Raymond Africa
