More than 70 foreigners, who were allegedly detained and forced to work at a POGO site in Cainta, Rizal, were rescued by operatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Bureau of Immigration (BI), and Chinese Embassy Friday, Sept. 16.
The authorities said that 70 Chinese nationals, a Vietnamese, a Malaysian, and two Taiwanese were rescued during the operation.
"We got a request coming from the Chinese Embassy, requesting our office to rescue Chinese national. Acting on it, we immediately formed a team," NBI Investigative Service Assistant Director Jose Doloiras said in an interview with ABS-CBN.
"Ang allegation is kidnapping, illegal detention. That is a heinous crime, (and) we immediately act on it," he added.
The official said they are still investigating the incident to find out the real purpose of the foreigners' detention as the arrested suspect identified as Li Mengqiang declined to talk.
One of the Chinese victims said that he and his colleagues were allegedly forced to work in an online casino and were beaten or tased when they refused to work or even take a break from the job.
The victim also showed his injuries and burn marks he got from their captors.
He claimed that he was not told that he would be working in a "fraudulent POGO scheme" upon his recruitment.
Doloiras explained that the victims could be “illegal aliens” as they failed to provide the authorities any ID or documents.
"We are going to process these people, profile them, if they are here without documents we will turn them over sa BI," Doloiras said.
He said that the national government, in partnership with other local and international agencies, will continue to work together to crackdown on illegal operations and activities.