The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) is considering filing criminal charges against the owner of the building in Parañaque City that was recently raided due to the operation of an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO).
At the regular Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, PAOCC director and spokesperson Winston Casio stated that the PAOCC would also seek the forfeiture of the entire building, which was allegedly used by Dan Ying Gaming Corp., where POGO workers have been operating for two years.
“Obviously, we will move for the criminal and civil forfeiture of the whole building because the POGO operations were on the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh floors,” Casio said, adding that a security agency also manned the building.
“So, the building owner will face a big problem for allowing his building to be used as a POGO hub,” he continued.
He also mentioned that the building owner could face human trafficking charges for “knowingly renting out his facility to POGO operations for the past several months.”
The owner, Casio said, apparently ignored several “red flags,” including the questionable PHP 20 million monthly lease payment.
“They must have seen the red flags. Many foreigners were coming in and out of the building. They probably noticed there were many computers. All of these are red flags, but they did not fulfill their social responsibility,” he said.
A total of 435 POGO workers, including 148 foreign nationals, were arrested during a raid on the Chinese-run POGO hub inside the ATI building in front of the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange on Thursday night.
Among those arrested were 136 Chinese nationals, five Vietnamese, three Malaysians, two Thais, one Taiwanese, and one Indonesian, Casio said.
Casio also stated that Dan Ying Gaming Corp. is allegedly owned by a “well-known” Filipino-Chinese businessman. The PAOCC is still in the process of identifying the beneficial owners and corporators of the gaming firm.