Shutdown of POGOs approved by House panel

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THE House Committee on Games and Amusement yesterday approved the bill filed by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante seeking to shut down and prohibit the operation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) in the country because of the spate of crimes linked to the industry.

On the motion of Bulacan Rep. Augustina Pancho, the committee chaired by Cavite Rep. Antonio Ferrer approved Abante’s House Bill 5802 which specifically seeks to “ban, prohibit and declare illegal the operation of POGOs.”

HBN 5802 states the country “must wake up to the realities that these Chinese nationals are making a mockery of our laws, peace and order, and to our cherished moral values.”

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“Police and NBI records and operations show, among others, their rude behavior, ‘Chinese-only’ restaurants and Chinese signages bordering on discrimination, hotels and condominium units used by POGOs in their operation are actually sex dens or for online prostitution, and kidnapping,” the bill also said.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez noted police records showing that 4,039 individuals have fallen victims to POGO-related crimes, including human trafficking, just in the first six months of 2023.

“Can you imagine, an inter-gamut of criminal law is already included here from the felonies under the Revised Penal Code,” Rodriguez said. “This is why I would say whatever the benefits accrued to our country [by POGOs], it has produced grave concerns and problems of peace and order. POGO has inflicted undesired results on our people.”

Other POGO-related crimes include homicide, illegal detention, theft, robbery extortion, serious physical injuries, swindling, grave coercion, and love scams.

In his bill, Abante, said gambling “is an evil that undermines the social and economic growth of the nation, a social menace that dissipates the energy and resources of the people.”

“It promotes laziness and nurtures a false hope of advancement by luck rather than hard work,” said Abante, a senior pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church and is the president of the Bible Believers’ League for Morality and Democracy (BIBLEMODE), which has a membership of 6,000 Baptist pastors in the country.

Abante said POGO operations in the country “is ironic, to say the least, because while online gambling is illegal in China, which does not, generally, believe in God being a Communist country, we made it legal through the operations of these POGOs, when our country has been identified as the only Christian nation in Asia, of which we are proud of.”

“With this, perhaps we, Filipinos, having made legal the gambling activities of POGOs, should also be proud if our country is to be called the only Christian nation as Gambling Nest in Asia,” he said.

The pastor-lawmaker said the continued operation of POGOs “is a public exhibition and a confession of frustration over, and inability to properly address, our pitiful national economic condition.”

“To argue that we need the revenues generated from POGOs, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) for that matter, is to admit the helplessness of the national leadership and a surrender in bended knees to the rule of the unarmed enemy of society called gambling,” he said.

In Pasig City, Mayor Vico Sotto said the city government has started closing down POGOs and other gaming establishments, such as those hosting e-games and e-bingos, in pursuit of

City Ordinance No. 55 series of 2022 passed on December 2022.

The ordinance prohibits “the operations, applications, and approval of licenses to operate online games of chance, including, but not limited to, online casinos, e-games, online sabong, e-Bingo outlets, online poker, and computer gaming stations.”

Sotto said the city government has given the gaming establishments one month to comply with the ordinance.

“We gave them a chance, more than one month, to peacefully close on their own. However, in blatant disregard of the law and local government regulations, 18 (of 23) of them continued operating without any permits until this February,” Sotto said.

Sotto ordered last February 9 the Business Permit and Licensing Department (BPLD), with the assistance of police operatives, to shut down the remaining gaming businesses.

The mayor clarified that lotto outlets of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) are not covered by the ordinance. — With Christian Oineza

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