MANILA – Surigao del Norte 2nd District Representative Robert Ace Barbers on Wednesday urged the public to help authorities flush out and deport foreign workers of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO) firms who have gone into hiding following the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to ban all POGOs in the country.
He said the public may use the various social media platforms, or report directly to the concerned local government units, immigration and law enforcement agents, about the presence of “underground” POGO offices and workers in their respective localities.
“Based on our on-going probe on POGOs and illegal drugs involving Chinese nationals, we all know that a number of them, who have pending criminal cases from their countries of origin, are still in the country and would rather stay and hide here than face the risk of being deported and punished at home,” Barbers said in a news release.
He said POGOS had also been used as convenient cover by some unscrupulous Chinese nationals engaged in drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, murder, human trafficking, financial scamming, prostitution, torture and other criminal activities.
With the President’s POGO ban directive, he said the syndicate, the financiers, protectors and local enablers of these gambling firms could be thinking ahead on how to skirt or play around with our laws to counter the new policy.
Barbers said while history may tell us that some things being banned, as a state policy, never worked, this could be achieved if all peace-loving and patriotic Filipinos would help one another, particularly local government executives and law enforcers, in preventing the subjects to skirt the ban in exchange for money or other favors.
“Let us all support President Marcos’ policy to ban POGOs. We know that many of them would now or later go underground and operate on small scales. But let us not allow these illegal online gambling firms, their owners and workers, to induce and corrupt our local and national authorities to turn a blind eye with the use of their laundered money,” the Mindanaoan lawmaker said.
“We should also help identify and/or unmask all those 'Makabagong Makapili' or POGO enablers, some of whom may again find new and huge financial opportunities by hiding, protecting and coddling all POGO personalities that are subjects of the ban,” he added.
Meanwhile, Barbers urged all legal and illegal POGO workers to voluntarily surrender and submit themselves to authorities, particularly to the Bureau of Immigration, for their smooth repatriation to their respective countries of origin.
In his State of the Nation (SONA) on July 22, the President ordered the banning “effective immediately” of all POGO gaming operations and directed the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to wind down and cease the gambling firms’ operation by the end of the year while the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was tasked to find jobs for the displaced Filipino workers. (PNA)
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