Senator Risa Hontiveros has recommended the filing of criminal cases against public officials involved in illegal activities related to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and the alleged coddlers of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Guo Hua Ping or Alice Guo.
The suggestion was embodied in Committee Report 514 based on findings of the years-long investigation of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality into human trafficking attributed to the illegal POGO operations in the country.
“The POGOs or Guo Hua Ping won’t have that bravado if they did not have protectors in the government. There must be further investigation on the ties of POGO scam hubs to government officials. We have to identify and make them accountable, ” Hontiveros stressed.
The Committee Report directed the Bureau of Immigration to immediately report to the Senate the reforms implemented in order to address not just the controversial escape of Guo Hua Ping, but also the reported involvement of Immigration personnel in the inbound trafficking of POGO workers and the outbound trafficking of Filipinos to work in scam compounds abroad.
“The problem of human trafficking has long been persistent in the BI (Bureau of Immigration). The problem even aggravated with the entry of the POGOs. We have to resolve this,” Hontiveros said in Filipino.
The Report also recommendsed the imposition of higher penalties for public officials complicit in the falsification of civil registry and other identification documents.
“If there are officials in the Philippine Statistics Authority or in the Securities and Exchange Commission who helped the POGOs wif fraudulent documents, they should get more than a slap on the wrist,” the senator said.
Sual Mayor Criseldo Calugay was one of the public officials cited in the Committee Report, due to revelations that his own staff helped facilitate the notarization of Guo Hua Ping’s affidavit even in her absence.
“Reports had it that some local government units were tarnished with POGO money. We have to look into this and punish those officials. Otherwise, the POGO scam hubs would continue to thrive,” she added.
The senator also said the fight against POGOs has not ended, especially since the scam hubs have resulted to guerilla operations. She also warned that some POGO employees have reported that they were transferred to work inside a casino, but still doing the same illegal activities.