The members of the Presidential Anti Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and Philippine National Police (PNP) entered and forced open a door of a room after hearing a man screaming inside a building at Lucky South 99—allegedly a POGO hub—in Porac, Pampanga early Friday morning.
A foreigner reached out to the law enforcement team with bruises on his body. According to the victim, he was employed by a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) company, which allegedly tortured him with a baseball bat because he wanted to resign.
The foreigner was also asked how he managed to escape the scene. He said he screamed the moment he heard that police cars were approaching.
“We saw a man tied up in a bed frame, full of bruises, we got him. Someone was screaming like last night, so we were forced to go in there and found out that he had been tied up for several days,” PAOCC spokesperson, Winston Casio said during an interview aired on ABS-CBN.
PAOCC rescued up to four foreigners in the Lucky South 99 compound in Porac, Pampanga, while 159 are in their custody because they are without passports. Some of the foreigners said they were tourists, and claimed they had connections to the said POGO hub.
PAOCC will also continue investigating the firm to find out whether the said establishment was a part of a syndicate.
“These next few days maybe, we will see who is the real owner behind Lucky South 99. The Filipino people are shocked as to who is the real owner of Lucky South 99,” the PAOCC spokesman said during the interview.
