Ace - PH needs US’ RICO-like law to stop POGOs and emergence of similar criminal enterprise – Barbers

The on-going Lower House joint Quad Committee (Quadcom) hearings continue to unravel the various racketeering schemes of a China-based organized crime syndicate which poured into the Philippines proceeds from laundered drug money used to established local offshore gambling hubs and housed foreign nationals engaged in kidnapping, torture, murder, online scams, human trafficking, prostitution, and other complex web of criminal activities, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said. 

Barbers, the designated Quadcom leader and chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said what was worse was the alleged diversion of some Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) dirty funds to finance and reward law enforcers involved in extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the previous administration’s campaign against illegal drugs. 

The lawmaker from Mindanao said that at this point of the Quadcom’s investigation, the panel members had been given a wider perspective -- through the resource persons’ testimonies and actuations – that has “pointed us to a direction that tells us that THERE IS STILL SO MUCH MORE TO UNCOVER in the mystery behind the illegal POGOS in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga – or even beyond.”

“Nakakagalit, nakakasama ng loob at nakakatindig balahibo ang mga patuloy na lumalabas na rebelasyon at impormasyon mula sa mga resource persons, mga dokumento at iba pa, hinggil sa China-based organized crime syndicate na ito na nilamon na ang ang dignidad at pagkatao nang ilan sa ating mga law enforcers at government officials na na-corrupt dahil sa limpak-limpak na pera,” he said. 

At this juncture of the Quadcom’s probe, Barbers said there is a need to craft an all-encompassing law against all known or would be created criminal enterprise in the country, just like the United State’s Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act which was used extensively and successfully to prosecute thousands of individuals and organizations in the US. 

The RICO Law makes it unlawful to acquire, operate, or receive income from an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. Geared toward ongoing organized criminal activities, the underlying tenet of RICO is to prove and prohibit a pattern of crimes conducted through an “enterprise,” which the statute defines as “any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.”

Barbers recalled what started out as a moto propio probe on the smuggling of 360 kilos of shabu worth P5.6 billion in Mexico, Pampanga in September last year involving a suspected drug lord Willie Ong has evolved into his alleged links with former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang and his Chinese cohorts who formed various SEC-registered interlocking firms using various fake identities and documentations, he said. 

“Mula sa pag-imbestiga namin kay Willie Ong, lumabas ang pangalan ni Michael Yang at ang kanyang mga Chinese cohorts. Later on, sa pag-imbestiga ng POGO sa Pampanga, lumabas ang pangalan ni Cassandra Li Ong at Atty. Harry Roque, mga local officials ng Pampanga, at iba pa. Sa pag-iimbistiga naman sa EJKs, lumalabas ngayon na ito’y tila state-sponsored at nasangkot na sa usapin si Sen. Bato dela Rosa, Sen. Bong Go, dating Pangulong Duterte, anti-drug cop Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, Col. Royina M. Garma, at iba pa. At patuloy pang nanganganak ang mga datos o impormasyon hinggil dito,” Barbers disclosed. 

The House leadership, Barbers explained, decided to create the Quadcom, the first of its kind in the Lower House’s history, because four House committees – Dangerous Drugs, Human Rights led by Manila 6th District Rep. Benny Abante, Public Order and Safety chaired by Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano and Public Accounts chaired by Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez– are separately conducting investigations with same resource persons and with similar or interrelated subjects. 

On the POGO issue during last Wednesday’s Quadcom hearings, Cassandra Li Ong, 24, the point person of leasing company Whirlwind and POGO firm Lucky South 99, both located in Porac, Pampanga, was excused in the hearing, as recommended by Lower House doctors, after she felt dizzy and her blood pressure dropped to 80/40. 

Ong, who fled to Indonesia last July, was caught in Batam by Indonesian authorities together with Shiela Go, sister of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, and repatriated back to the Philippines and placed under Lower House’s custody, was undergoing intense questioning by solons when she felt ill. 

Ong started to break down when she was asked by solons to divulge profile and identity of a certain Rainier Tiu and threats that she would be transferred from custody of the Lower House to the Women’s Correctional Institute in Mandaluyong City.   

She at first claimed she was not just a dummy, at Whirlwind and Lucky South 99, of her alleged Chinese godfather named Duanren Wu or of other “bigger person” and did no deny her 58 percent ownership of Whirlwind. 

On the issue of EJK’s, Supt. Gerardo Padilla, former warden of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) suggested that former President Duterte may have orchestrated the killing of three Chinese drug lords, using two local inmates, in 2016. 

In his testimony, Padilla also confirmed a conversation with then-CIDG officer Royina Garma regarding the murders, implying that Garma was acting under orders from a higher authority—hinting at the involvement of Duterte.

For fear of reprisals on him and his family with his “deeper disclosures”, Padilla sought and was granted an “executive session” by the Quadcom purportedly to “bare all” on what he knows about the killings, including what he said on the “bigger person” who was all behind it. The Quadcom has yet to decide whether to disclose or not the discussions during the executive session with Padilla. 

Padilla, currently detained for 30 days by the House Quad Committee for contempt, retracted his earlier denial of involvement in the killings, while under his custody, of Chinese nationals Chu Kin Tung, also known as Tony Lim; Li Lan Yan, also known as Jackson Li; and Wong Meng Pin, also known as Wang Ming Ping. 

DPPF detainees Leopoldo “Tata” Tan Jr. and Fernando “Andy” Magdadaro earlier testified they killed the three Chinese nationals on the alleged orders of former President Duterte, thru Garma and Padilla. (30)