Chesca Barbers urges public to help authorities flush out illegal POGO workers in hiding 

A lawmaker from Mindanao today urged the public to help government authorities in their effort to flush out and deport foreign workers of all POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) firms whose operations were ordered banned by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his State of the Nation Address last July 22. 

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers also urge all legal and illegal workers of said online gambling firms to voluntarily surrender and submit themselves to authorities, particularly to the Bureau of Immigration, for their smooth repatriation to their respective countries of origin. 

“Based on our on-going probe on POGOs and illegal drugs involving Chinese nationals, we all know that a number of them, who have pending criminal cases from their countries of origin, are still in the country and would rather stay and hide here than face the risk of being deported and punished at home,” he said. 

The public, he said, may use the various social media platforms, or report directly to the concerned local government units, immigration and law enforcement agents, about the presence of “underground” POGO offices and workers in their respective localities. 

In his SONA last week, the President ordered the banning “effective immediately” of all POGO gaming operations and directed the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to wind down and cease the gambling firms’ operation by the end of the year while the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was tasked to find jobs for the displaced Filipino workers. 

The Surigao del Norte (2nd District) solon said POGOs, renamed by Pagcor as Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs) to “deodorize” its past, had been used as convenient cover by some unscrupulous Chinese nationals engaged in drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, murder, human trafficking, financial scamming, prostitution, torture and other criminal activities. 

“On-line gambling by POGOs may provide us much-needed revenues. But they are not worth it compared to the menace they brought to us. In 2019, reports said it created a diplomatic clash between China and the Philippines. China has warned that POGOs can worsen criminality, specifically money laundering, branding them the most ‘dangerous tumor in modern society’ disliked by all people worldwide. Instead, the government allowed them to flourish purportedly for revenues,” Barbers said.  

“And as early as November 2019, if you can recall, I already assailed, in a privilege speech, that POGOs could be used by crime groups for money laundering and illegal drug trafficking. Only a few listened. But I think I was later proven right,” Barbers said.

He said that while history may tell us that some things being banned, as a state policy, never worked, this could be achieved if all peace-loving and patriotic Filipinos would help one another, particularly local government executives and law enforcers, in preventing the subjects to skirt the ban in exchange for money or other favors.  

“Let us all support President Marcos Jr.’s policy to ban POGOs. We know that many of them would now or later go underground and operate on small-scales. But let us not allow these illegal online gambling firms, their owners and workers, to induce and corrupt our local and national authorities to turn a blind eye with the use of their laundered money,” the Mindanaoan lawmaker said. 

Barbers said that right now, with the President’s POGO ban directive, the syndicate, the financiers, protectors and local enablers of these gambling firms, just like rust that never sleeps, could be thinking ahead on how to skirt or play around with our laws to counter the new policy.  

“We should also help identify and/or unmask all those Makabagong Makapili or POGO enablers, some of whom may again find new and huge financial opportunities by hiding, protecting and coddling all POGO personalities that are subjects of the ban,” he added. (30)