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Total ban on POGOs backed
By Nidz Godino
"We, the undersigned business groups, fully support the recommendation of DOF ,Department of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and NEDA ,National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan for total ban on POGOs," groups include Makati Business Club, Alyansa Agrikultura, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Foundation for Economic Freedom, Institute of Corporate Directors, Justice Reform Initiative, Management Association of the Philippines and UP (University of the Philippines) School of Economics Alumni Association expressed support for total ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO), being linked to illegal activities in the country.
Citing NEDA data, groups said POGO investments' contribution to Philippine economy is minimal at 0.2 percent of gross domestic product last year.
Groups said there also social costs, with recent hearings illustrating POGOs have been linked to involvement in crimes such as human trafficking, kidnapping and money laundering, among others.
Citing data from Philippine National Police, groups said 55 percent of 31 cases of kidnappings in 2022 were POGO-related.
Earlier, Balisacan said government, in his view, should be focusing on generating high quality jobs and not gambling jobs. Recto said recommendation to totally ban POGOs has been sent to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr..
Business groups stressed government should help re-skill Filipino workers who may lose their jobs due to ban and enable industries affected by POGOs to find alternative uses for their assets.
It will be best if Marcos will declare his policy toward POGOs in the country so as to make definitive line between law-abiding POGOs and illegal ones, key official of the House of Representatives said.
Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, chairs House ways and means committee, suggested Chief Executive can do so by simply stating that the country's law must be followed, when he delivers his third State of the Nation Address before joint Congress on Monday.
"It's simple implement the law…follow the law…enforce the law…if you enforce the law, naturally, you will catch violators, if you hear news of violations, that's because PAGCOR ,Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and law enforcement are catching them... let the law work," Salceda said.
The Bicolano lawmaker noted that there is definite line between POGOs that toe line, and those that do not.
He is against proposal to totally ban or shut down POGOs mainly because of enormous taxes government generates from them, but he said going after ones that engage in illegal activities would be ideal.
Citing data from gaming licensing agency, Salceda said last year's collections from POGOs improved to P5.1 billion from just 87 licensees , huge contrast to P2.99 billion from the year before, which came from 158 licensees.
PAGCOR had renamed POGOs to internet gaming licensees or IGLs.
With this, PAGCOR collected about 71 percent more revenues for last year with 45 percent fewer licensees.
Salceda also noted POGO industry has been getting fewer Chinese and more Filipinos in terms of direct and indirect hires.
"If they are not engaged in illegal activities, and if they pay their taxes, then licensees should be allowed to continue operating…my stance has always been this: close down bad ones, as you would in any industry," he recommended.
Problem with POGOs, according to the lawmaker, is that government was able to collect more taxes with only fewer of them, compared to those that mushroomed during the time of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
"We are cutting out weeds so that flowers can grow," Salceda stressed, noting since PAGCOR started cracking whip under current administration, "tax and regulatory fee collections have increased dramatically from fewer licensees."
"Difference is starker on tax side…at the height of POGOs in 2019, there were 298 licensees that paid P6.42 billion in total taxes…now, with just 87 licensees, internet gaming licensees paid P10.3 billion in taxes, if you close down whole sector, good players and bad, you put to waste all efforts of Marcos administration to crack down on bad players," he said.
As these developed, names Alice Guo and Guo Hua Ping have both been placed in the Immigration Lookout Bulletin (ILBO), Bureau of Immigration said.
"Both Alice Guo and Guo Hua Ping's names are included in ILBO," BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said after Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian stated that suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo might have left the country using her Chinese passport.
But he also said that information from BI reportedly showed beleaguered mayor is still in the country.
When asked if Guo might have left the country through south, using "backdoor," or if she had taken advantage of the country's porous borders, Sandoval said that question should be directed to Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Philippine Navy.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) earlier confirmed Mayor Guo and Guo Hua Ping are the same person.
Last July 13, Senate issued warrants of arrest against Guo and seven others, namely Sheila Leal Guo, Wesley Leal Guo, Jian Zhong Guo, Seimen Guo and her suspected mother Wen Yi Lin, as well as Dennis Cunanan and Nancy Gamo. The respondents have been called to appear at the next committee hearing set on July 29.
Warrant against Guo was issued after she failed to attend hearing called by Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality.
Gamo, accountant of Mayor Guo, had been arrested. She will stay in Senate until resumption of Senate's inquiry into raided POGO hub in Bamban, Tarlac.
Four foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, rescued from POGO hubs in Pampanga and Tarlac appeared at inquiry of two House panels to prove torture activities inside online gambling facilities.
Filipina who was rescued from scamming facility in Myanmar by Presidential Anti-organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) was also presented during joint hearing of the House panels on public order and security and human rights.
"We cannot allow these rogue POGO operators to persist... imperative that we identify and unmask masterminds and protectors behind these operations so they can be prosecuted to fullest extent of the law," House Speaker Martin Romualdez underscored.
"We presented Myanmar case to provide context to committee that problem of scam farm is not limited to Philippines but inter-Asian problem," PAOCC spokesman Wilson Casio said, adding influx of foreigners working in POGOs started in 2017 and peaked in 2019.
PAOCC also showed video clips of five POGO workers undergoing torture at the hands of Chinese nationals inside facilities. This included video of Malaysian national who was found dead last year.
First video showed Chinese woman being hit by pipes in the head and back. Second video showed Chinese man tied to the foot of double-decker bed while his hands were tased, and third video showed naked Chinese man whose genitalia were tased by two men.
One of the rescued workers, Malaysian who identified himself as Dylan, told panel he was invited for dinner by friend in Bamban because it was Chinese New Year. But he was, instead, sold to POGO hub in Bamban for P300,000.
Dylan was told by POGO that he would be released if he pays his "debt" or work for them for 18 months without pay. He suffered minor beating when he asked for his release on his sixth month at the said facility.
On the other hand, Filipina woman told panel she was encouraged to work in Myanmar by her own relative as an encoder. She, however, ended up working in facility engaged in love scams and investment scamming through chat. Victim also experienced being tortured when she asked to go home.
Also in Congress, Lanao del Sur Rep. Adiong filed resolution seeking inquiry into proliferation of fictitious and falsified birth certificates and passports issued to foreign nationals.
In House Resolution No. 1802, Adiong proposed probe be conducted jointly by committees on local government and justice.
Resolution stated proliferation of these documents "posts serious threat to national security."
Measure was filed in the aftermath of NBI's revelation that almost 200 allegedly falsified birth certificates were issued to mostly Chinese nationals by civil registry in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
Licenses issued by government to POGOs, particularly those run by Chinese, were being used as fronts for illegal activities, former Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio said.
Carpio pointed out that PAGCOR should not have issued licenses to Chinese-run POGO firms in the first place because their websites are not accessible to China. He said that China declared it "never allows any kind of gambling."
"Have you heard about 'great firewall of China… online POGOs claiming to operate in China are blocked…they get license from PAGCOR saying they operate in China but they are blocked," Carpio said during Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.
Carpio said POGO firms run by Mainland Chinese could have used PAGCOR licenses as "cover only so they can have buildings, operation with computers, but cannot actually bring online gaming to China because they are blocked."
"So what are they doing… scamming, internet phishing and scamming," he said.
Carpio also hoped President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.would announce declaration against Chinese-run POGO firms.
"It is probably good if he can announce he is against rules of PAGCOR issuing licenses on POGO that cater to Mainland Chinese market," he said when asked what he wanted to hear on upcoming State of the Nation Address next week, would be Marcos' third of his six-year presidency.
Carpio was among alumni of UP College of Law who recently called on the President to order cancellation of all POGOs serving clients from mainland China.
PAGCOR should not have issued licenses to Chinese POGO firms since online gambling websites are blocked in China where gambling is prohibited, he explained.
"Just cancel those licenses…we are just fooling ourselves," he concluded.
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