A former high-ranking government official tried to facilitate the grant of gaming licenses to some of the illegal POGOs recently raided and found engaged in illegal activities.
However, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco needed to identify if the former official served under the present administration or the previous Duterte government.
"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.
In addition, the PAGCOR chief called on concerned agencies investigating the suspicious activities of former POGO licensees to investigate the role of former officials and their conduits in granting licenses to POGO applicants with dubious backgrounds.
The PAGCOR chief said he would reveal in the proper forum the identity of the former Cabinet member who had been lobbying for the illegal POGOs and the circumstances that led to the proliferation of illegal and criminal offshore gaming operations.
"It is in the government's interest 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.
The PAGCOR chief explained that the current administration has been doing its part to weed out illegal operators, resulting in a significant decrease in licensees from 298 during the previous administration to only 43.
"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, 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.