A senior administration lawmaker on Monday urged Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Chairman Alejandro Tengco to disclose the names of the legitimate Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) given licenses and accreditation by the regulatory agency.
Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers also asked Tengco to cooperate with Congress and make public all POGOs operating without licenses.
“POGOs, whether licensed, legitimate or illegal are nothing but fronts for criminal activities. Ranging from money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, protecting criminal syndicates engaged in murders, kidnapping, torture, rape and up to engaging in POGO politics, name it and surely it is all there. POGO is the one stop shop of criminal activities,” Barbers said.
“If we continue to allow their operations, we will all be consumed by its corrupt and criminal system until it becomes the accepted norm and our society becomes worthless. POGOs are a curse that have to be taken out from our system,” he added.
The chair of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs made the call in light of Tengco’s pronouncement that a former Cabinet member lobbied and used his influence for the licensing of POGOs during the past administration.
Barbers warned the trend is fast taking a twist as citizens from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries like Vietnamese, Malaysians, and Indonesians are now flooding our country to replace Chinese workers in these POGOs.
He said these people can enter the country without any visa, their being ASEAN member nations.
The lawmaker warned the Bureau of Immigration (BI) against giving working visas to these people in exchange for bribes.
“We are not done yet with our investigations so I am warning these agencies not to extend working visas to these new arrivals who are being used to replace Chinese employees in the POGOs. I promise you, we will come out with our committee report recommending the appropriate actions when we are done with our investigations,” Barbers said.
“The same is true with PAGCOR. If it is proven that all those raided POGOs engaged in criminal activities have been licensed, or that other licensed POGOs being protected and sponsored by some influential and notorious characters are found to be havens for criminal activities, we will make sure that those negligent, incompetent, and corrupt will be punished,” he added.