SENATORS on Wednesday grilled members of the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) due to alleged lapses during a raid in a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Las Piñas City last June.
Authorities meanwhile report another raid in an establishment in Pasay City on Tuesday evening over alleged cyber scams and held 650 persons of interest including foreign nationals.
During a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Raffy Tulfo pressed PNP-ACG Director P/Brig. Gen. Sidney Hernia on their failure to arrest the foreigners involved in the illegal POGO operations despite carrying a search warrant.
Tulfo said they could have repeatedly kicked the doors of the POGO hub or even destroyed them to get the POGO workers out of the premises.
Tulfo also rebuked Hernia and his group for failing to coordinate with the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT)led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), unlike in previous raids.
Hernia however said authorities “were just being careful in dealing with foreigners.” Hernia also said Jonathan Lledo, chairman of the National Inter-Agency Task Force Against Trafficking (NIATFAT), was part of the meeting before the raid.
“In fact during the operation, the members of the IACAT, led by the prosecutor of IACAT were with us. The team of Prosecutor Jonathan Lledo was in that meeting,” Hernia said.
The senator also noted it took time before PNP-ACG called concerned agencies like the Bureau of Immigration, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the National Bureau of Investigation after the raid.
Responding to the query of Senator Risa Hontiveros on coordination, Justice Usec.
Nicholas Ty said it was a “last minute and perfunctory collaboration” with the IACACT.
Tulfo also said “money changed hands,” saying the PNP-ACG demanded P200,000 to P150,000 from the arrested suspects so they can be released. He also told Hernia that they should undergo a lifestyle check.
Regarding the Pasay City raid meanwhile, authorities said the persons of interest include more than 400 Filipinos while the rest are Chinese and Indian nationals.
Authorities also reported that found hundreds of phones, computers, SIM cards, and other devices as they implemented a search warrant on the five-storey building.
Papers with supposed scripts for love scams and devices for text blasts were also seen in the area.
Conversations between victims—mostly white foreigners—and alleged scammers were still accessible on the screen of some computers at the
time of the raid.
Ty said the hub was allegedly running love scams and cryptocurrency scams.