Large-scale POGOs have “disintegrated into small units” after President Marcos ordered a ban on the gaming establishments, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said Tuesday, adding it has been going after over 100 small illegal gambling operators.
“What used to be large-scale POGOs with thousands of employees have disintegrated into smaller units, so there are more (POGOs) now,” PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said in a television interview.
“The challenge now is that there are so many underground (POGOs). There are a good number of them and we’re having difficulty catching up,” he added.
Casio said PAOCC is monitoring some Chinese and Malaysian-Chinese nationals who may be financing illegal gambling operations.
“We are developing our case against them to ensure we have enough evidence to apply for a search warrant and mission order for us to arrest them. In the next few days, we will nab these people,” he said.
The Bureau of Immigration on Tuesday reminded foreign POGO workers who have downgraded their working visas to use the 59-day period to prepare for their departure.
“A downgrade of a foreign national’s working visa to a temporary visitor’s visa means the holders of these visas must be ready to depart from the Philippines. This is not for leisure or to find another job to wind down affairs. Pack up and buy a ticket to leave the country,” BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said.
Foreign employees of POGOs have until yearend to wrap up operations and leave the country.
Based on the latest BI data, at least 12,000 foreign POGO workers filed applications to downgrade their working visas.
As this developed, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said he has requested for alleged POGO big boss Lin Xunhan, alias Boss Boga, to be invited to the next hearing on illegal offshore gambling operations.
“Mr. Lin has many revelations about the POGO in Bamban and how (dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo) Guo Hua Ping is related to him and to the POGO operations. Personally I want to look into this because he is the big boss,” Gatchalian said.
Lin was arrested by PAOCC and BI agents on Oct. 10.
Gatchalian said they are still trying to get in touch with She Zhijiang, the self-confessed Chinese spy jailed in Thailand who claimed Guo is a fellow Chinese spy.
Meanwhile, the BI confirmed Mylah Roque, wife of former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, left the country in early September this year.
Mrs. Roque is being sought by the House Quad Committee investigating illegal POGO operations after she failed to respond to a subpoena from the panel.
Sandoval said Mrs. Roque left the country on September 3—at least 13 days before a lookout bulletin was issued against her on September 16.
Mr. Roque, on the other hand, is still in the country, Sandoval said, adding there is no record that he left the country based on the BI’s departure list.
