THE National Security Council (NSC) and other relevant government agencies back calls for the total ban of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) amid the national security threat and related crimes that their continued operations pose to the public.
Meanwhile in Pampanga, authorities apprehended on Tuesday 158 foreign nationals and 29 Filipinos during a raid of a POGO hub in Angeles City.
A report from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), which supervised the operation, said the foreigners included 126 Chinese nationals, while the rest were from Vietnam (23), Malaysia (four), Myanmar (four) and Korea (one).
Personnel from various PNP units, the Department of Justice, IACAT, and AFP conducted the raid on the supervision of the PAOCC.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros said a total POGO ban was the sentiment that she got during the executive session that she had with officials from the NSC, Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), and Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) in connection with the ongoing Senate investigation on the ills of POGO operations.
“Yun ang isang panawagan, suggestion, that I carried bilang chair na tulad ng ipinanawagan ko kay Presidente, na i-ban na ang POGO, paalisin na sila sa ating bayan. Na-raise din ang ganyang panawagan at nasabi kong directly sa NSC, sila ang council o body sa loob ng gobyerno na pinaka-concerned sa usapin ng national security (That is one of the recommendations, suggestions which I carried as committee chairman, the same suggestion that I made to the President to ban POGOs, to kick them out of the country. That call was also raised by the other agencies and I told them to bring it to the NSC since it is the agency primary concerned with national security),” Hontiveros told the Kapihan sa Senado media forum.
During the executive meeting, Hontiveros said the ISAFP reported about its ongoing “link analysis” of POGO operations, while the AMLC gave a briefing on the illegal revenue streams of the POGO industry.
She did not elaborate on the reports made by the two agencies.
Hontiveros reiterated her appeal to President Marcos Jr. to act with urgency on the recommendations of numerous government agencies and civil society groups to ban POGOs in the country.
“Ang Presidente ay puwedeng umaksiyon kung siya mismo ang magsasabi na paalisin na. Inaasahan kong mismo ang NSC, bilang body ng gobyerno, na sana i-bring up na nila ito kay Presidente para makapagsalita na sila sa usapin ng POGO bilang threat (POGOs can be banned if the President acts on it. I hope that the NSC will discuss this with the President soon),” she said.
“Kung hindi tutugunan ngayon decisively ay mananatiling problema ito sa mga susunod pang taon (If this will not be acted on decisively, the problem will persist in the years to come),” she added.
LUCKY SOUTH 9
Operatives raided the Lucky South 9, a POGO hub located at Grand Palazzo Royale located along Friendship Highway in Angeles City.
PAOCC said the operation was conducted based on the warrant issued by Judge Belinda Rama of the Malolos, Bulacan Regional Trial Court Branch 14.
“The warrant was issued against the officers and employees of Lucky South 99… based on a complaint that human trafficking is happening inside the said rogue POGO,” the report said.
It said the raid stemmed from a report, provided by confidential informants, about a female foreign national being sexually trafficked in the area.
Also, the informants reported that male foreign nationals “are being tortured” at the POGO hub.
“During the serving of the warrant, a total of 157 (158) foreign nationals were apprehended together with 29 Filipinos,” the report said.
PAOCC said the apprehended foreign nationals are currently undergoing immigration biometrics.
PAOCC spokesman Winston John Casio, in a television interview, said they were expecting to find almost a thousand foreign nationals at the POGO hub.
Casio said information about the raid may have leaked, thus only over a hundred foreigners were found in the property.
Casio also clarified that the personalities were rescued, noting that some of them were supposedly “tortured,” with some of them hit by baseball bats and some kicked by their superiors.
He also said PAOCC was able to secure a video that female employees were being ordered to dance and were molested by their superiors. — With Victor Reyes
