By Herbert Vego
BETTER late than never. There is no more excuse for the Senate to go slow on probing the connection between Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo and the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), whether or not she is a Filipino citizen. It is already undisputed that the 36 buildings at the 10-hectare Bamban compound used to be a major POGO hub.
The March 14, 2024 raid by elements of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Bureau of Immigration led to the arrest of 499 foreign nationals, mostly of Chinese origin, over alleged online illegal gambling, internet fraud, and other cybercrime operations. It was their second raid.
During the first raid in June 2020, they caught scantily dressed Filipina croupiers shuffling cards in front of a webcam. Nearby, rows of Chinese nationals were seated at desks, chatting on cell phones with suspected clients in China.
By then, the Philippines had emerged as a major hub for online gaming, according to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), which disclosed to Cable News Network (CNN) that the POGOs had attracted more than 100,000 Chinese nationals to work in virtual casinos catering to players back in China where gambling is illegal.
What happened immediately after the first raid?
A CNN report dated June 15, 2020 stated why the then President Rodrigo Duterte would not ban the POGO industry.
“We decide to benefit the interest of my country,” Duterte allegedly said. “I decide that we need it.”
He ignored the news report that between January 2017 and October 2019, the Philippine National Police (PNP) had dealt with 65 cases of kidnap-for-ransom involving POGO workers, leading to the arrests of 132 people. Almost all the victims and perpetrators were Chinese nationals.
Nevertheless, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) intensified the development of POGO by awarding licenses to more Chinese operators.
The number of licensees had risen to 63 before sliding down to 26 with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. But of course, their individual Chinese workers still counted in the thousands.
As of May 15, this year, according to a news report by the Philippine Star, 40 POGOs remain active as internet gaming licensees.
PAGCOR chairman Alejandro Tengco told the paper that offshore gaming operations had brought in ₱3.15 billion gaming revenue in 2023 but belittled it as a mere 4.31 percent of its total gaming revenues of ₱79.37 billion.
“This means that POGO operations have brought more harm than good, as the economic costs greatly outweigh the benefits derived from such operations,” said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who has filed Senate Bill No. 2689 seeking to outlaw POGO.
POGOs have been linked to major crimes like kidnapping, murder, prostitution, extortion, illegal drug dealing, money laundering, human trafficking and online scamming, thus generating public outcry for their ban.
Most senators and congressmen have joined that outcry. But where were they while Rodrigo Duterte was still president?
It was only Sen. Risa Hontiveros who bravely exposed the ‘pastillas scam’ that allowed the entry of Chinese nationals without visa – some of them POGO workers — in cahoots with bribed Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials.
Congrats to BI personnel who received ₱10,000 in rolled ‘pastillas bills’.
-oOo-
POWER RATE INCREASE INEVITABLE
BE prepared for the next electricity bill you will be receiving. All power distributors will be billing higher rates due to several factors, such as devaluation of the Philippine peso and the component hikes charged by power generators.
In Iloilo City, MORE Power has no choice but slightly adjust residential rates from the present ₱10.3062 to ₱11.3263 per kilowatt-hour. None of the ₱1.0201 hike, however, will go to MORE but to the power plants that the company patronizes.
The three branches of the Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO), on the other hand, will be charging higher at ₱14.4993 (ILECO 1), ₱15.1943 (ILECO 2) and ₱15.3297 (ILECO 3).
To explain why MORE Power remains the cheapest, we have invited the company’s vice-president for corporate energy sourcing, Niel V. Parcon, to be one of our guests on our Aksyon Radyo/FB program, “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Sunday, 12:15 to 1:15 p.m.
