Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to run after illegally operating Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO).
“Now that this has come to light, the NBI is there already. We already have mobilized teams from the NBI to start moving on this one,” Remulla told reporters following his meeting with Chinese Embassy officials led by its Charge D’affaires Ad Interim Zhou Zhyong.
Remulla said NBI teams have been reactivated to join other law enforcement agencies in addressing illegal activities in the POGO industry.
“We’re already moving now. We stopped the NBI’s operation then because nobody was filing cases. Before, they would conduct rescue operations, but we found out there were no reports, no cases filed when we arrived here. So, we had to stop it,” Remulla said.
Last July, Remulla ordered the NBI to suspend all its operations against POGOs, explaining that previous operations were just a waste of government time and resources.
This developed as Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said Thursday he believes more senators would support policy reforms regarding POGOs than seek a total ban on them.
“If the proposal is to ban, totally ban POGOs, no more legal or illegal POGOs because they will be prohibited, I think it will be a close fight in the Senate. There will be quite a few in favor and then quite a few that will oppose,” Pimentel said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
“But if the proposal will be to reform the current system, be stricter in monitoring them, be stricter in collecting the taxes due and also be stricter with the illegal aliens who are here under [the] cover of working for POGO supposedly, then I think we will get overwhelming support from the Senate,” he added.
However, Pimentel said he supports a total ban on offshore gaming operations, citing “alarm signals.”
“There are legal POGO and illegal POGO. We don’t know if the crimes committed here are by aliens who are here because of legal POGOs, or if they are here because of illegal POGOs?” the senator told CNN.
“There’s a lot of them now, so the mere existence of legal POGOs has been used as a cover for the entry into our country of undesirable aliens, and they get through our first line of defense, through our borders because what’s their excuse? There are POGOs here,” he said.
“Then, our second line of defense, with our policemen, is the same. If a complaint is filed against an alien, (police) would not know if they are working for a legal POGO or illegal POGO,” Pimentel added.
“So what’s the way to best solve this problem? Simplify everything, simplify our lives, simplify our policy. Ban POGOs.”
On the issue of overstaying Chinese POGO workers, Remulla said the Philippines will start deporting them in the next few weeks.
“Hopefully by the end of this month or first week of October, we will begin,” he said.
Remulla said he has started talks with Chinese Embassy officials on the deportation of about 300 overstaying POGO workers.
The Justice chief also said he talked with Zhou to discuss the issue.
“We talked about the procedures that will have to be taken so that these overstaying Chinese nationals will be repatriated,” he said.
Remulla added that the Bureau of Immigration (BI) already has in its custody around 300 overstaying Chinese nationals.
On the deportation of around 40,000 POGO workers who may be staying in the Philippines illegally, Pimentel said the government should seek China’s assistance.
“We have to ask China to help us send their countrymen back to their homeland by not scaring them away from their homeland by saying ‘You are not welcome here. You have cases here. Stay in place wherever you are,'” he added.
Earlier, several senators expressed concern about the social costs of offshore gaming operations in the country.
The Senate ways and means committee will hold a hearing to measure the economic benefits and social costs of POGO in the country. A resolution had already been filed in the Senate seeking an overall evaluation of POGOs’ social costs and economic gains.
Last week, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said he was in favor of discontinuing POGOs because of their social cost.
Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who led the Senate probe into the series of alleged kidnappings in the country, previously suggested that banning POGOs would help deter crimes.