Illegal or not
Published Oct 13, 2022 12:02 am
MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
POGO or stop? After a five-hour hearing in the Senate, how much do we – and tourism officials in China – know about these mysterious Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators?
If sending 40,000 of them back to China means creating a humanitarian crisis – in the words of Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla – what is the alternative of keeping them here, be they illegal or legal? Gambling is a crime in China, ergo gamblers are criminals, ergo a returning POGO faces a fine and arrest with jail time. Offshore betting is outlawed in China, which may explain why, according to Chinese Ambassador Huang Xi Lian, the Philippines could land in China’s blacklist of foreign tourist destinations. As a matter of perspective, mainlanders from China are No. 3 on our list of tourist arrivals.
If you ask the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry for their opinion, president Henry Lim Bon Liong will tell you that local Chinoys want all illegal POGOs out, which is only logical, if not redundantly so, because illegal means not legal, therefore criminal. Outside of the Federation, Chinoys are heard to speak more bluntly. They are embarrassed by the lack of manners of a certain type of POGO – the illegals? – who smoke in no-smoking zones, cough and sneeze without covering their mouth, and generally disrespect the rules and regulations of the condos or apartments where they live.
Another perspective is provided by 23,000 Filipinos employed by POGOs, but at the same time it’s said that there are more Chinese nationals working in those gaming sites than Filipinos. The 23,000 are worried about losing their jobs, you wanna bet?
What makes a POGO illegal? The absence of a license from Pagcor, or because sooner or later the gambling turns into money laundering, and then, before a pogo-stick player can leapfrog to his first mile, the operators are into kidnapping? (A Marites source reveals that victims are kidnapped for their ability to speak Mandarin fluently.)
In the last six years, POGOs turned in a windfall of P61 billion – rentals, food, shopping, local hires – but at the other end of the exercise, “only one in 100 cases” of illegal activity was prosecuted, quoting Sen. Win Gatchalian. That’s the short end of the stick.
Jullie Y. Daza
POGO or stop? After a five-hour hearing in the Senate, how much do we – and tourism officials in China – know about these mysterious Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators?
If sending 40,000 of them back to China means creating a humanitarian crisis – in the words of Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla – what is the alternative of keeping them here, be they illegal or legal? Gambling is a crime in China, ergo gamblers are criminals, ergo a returning POGO faces a fine and arrest with jail time. Offshore betting is outlawed in China, which may explain why, according to Chinese Ambassador Huang Xi Lian, the Philippines could land in China’s blacklist of foreign tourist destinations. As a matter of perspective, mainlanders from China are No. 3 on our list of tourist arrivals.
If you ask the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry for their opinion, president Henry Lim Bon Liong will tell you that local Chinoys want all illegal POGOs out, which is only logical, if not redundantly so, because illegal means not legal, therefore criminal. Outside of the Federation, Chinoys are heard to speak more bluntly. They are embarrassed by the lack of manners of a certain type of POGO – the illegals? – who smoke in no-smoking zones, cough and sneeze without covering their mouth, and generally disrespect the rules and regulations of the condos or apartments where they live.
Another perspective is provided by 23,000 Filipinos employed by POGOs, but at the same time it’s said that there are more Chinese nationals working in those gaming sites than Filipinos. The 23,000 are worried about losing their jobs, you wanna bet?
What makes a POGO illegal? The absence of a license from Pagcor, or because sooner or later the gambling turns into money laundering, and then, before a pogo-stick player can leapfrog to his first mile, the operators are into kidnapping? (A Marites source reveals that victims are kidnapped for their ability to speak Mandarin fluently.)
In the last six years, POGOs turned in a windfall of P61 billion – rentals, food, shopping, local hires – but at the other end of the exercise, “only one in 100 cases” of illegal activity was prosecuted, quoting Sen. Win Gatchalian. That’s the short end of the stick.