PAGCOR chief vows to unmask ‘lobbyists’
A former Cabinet official tried to facilitate the grant of gaming licenses to some of the illegal POGOs that have been recently raided and found engaged in illegal activities, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco said.
“It is in the interest of the government to crack the whip against illegal operators, including the so-called offshore gaming operators or POGOs and their backers, because the criminal activities associated with their illegal operations pose serious threats to our people,” he said in a statement issued on Saturday.
Tengco said he will “reveal in the proper forum the identity of the former Cabinet member who had been lobbying for illegal POGOs, as well as the circumstances that led to the proliferation of illegal and criminal offshore gaming operations.”
Tengco said the number of licensees went down from 298 during the previous administration to only 43 under the Marcos government.
“What we need to question, in the first place, was how those 298 POGO licensees were able to secure their licensees in the past because clearly, during our cleansing process, we found most of them to be ineligible and outright suspicious,” Tengco said.
“We are also ready to reveal the roles of other controversial individuals behind these criminal POGO enterprises,” he added.
The agency is also investigating the role of other former officials and their conduits in lobbying for the grant of licenses to POGO applicants with dubious backgrounds, he said.
“As a regulator, it is our mandate to ensure that only those with valid licenses are allowed to operate all forms of gambling and gaming activities, whether these are land-based casinos or online platforms,” Tengco said.
For his part, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian warned there may be more foreign nationals pretending to be Filipinos after the National Bureau of Investigation said suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo and Chinese national Guo Hua Ping are the same person based on their matching fingerprints.
“I think there are many more ‘Alice Guo’ out there. They are not just as high profile,” Gatchalian told Teleradyo Serbisyo.
“There have been reports that allegedly, some Chinese or other foreigners have been buying lands in the country. We should look at the bigger picture to unmask the modus operandi of these people,” the senator added.
The Department of Justice on Saturday also said the NBI disclosure would not affect the criminal cases filed against Guo.
DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano said that criminal cases have been already filed against Guo.
“There’s also been talk about her fake identity… That won’t affect her cases…She could face additional liabilities if it is found that she is using a stolen identity,” Clavano said.