A Filipino workers association in the online gaming industry on Wednesday, Oct. 26, denounced the calls by three prominent local business groups to phaseout Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and their service providers.
In a statement, the group Pinoy sa POGO, composed of more than 23,000 Filipino workers, said that business organizations advocating for the closure of offshore gaming operations due to alleged “social costs” are “elitists” and “anti-poor.”
Karen Santa Cruz, one of the officers of the POGO workers’ association, said rich businessmen don’t care about the poor who will lose their jobs. “They’ve never experienced hunger or lack of money to send their children to school so they don’t care about us.”
Santa Cruz said the real “social cost” is massive unemployment if government shuts down POGOs and their service providers that employ thousands of Filipinos as encoders, dealers, housekeeping staff, drivers, cooks and waiters.
“The worst insult is to deprive us of dignity and cause family separation when we are again forced to seek work abroad,” she said.
The group scored the Makati Business Club (MBC), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) and even the Department of Finance.
Pinoy sa POGO alleged that the three business groups and the DOF have misled and discriminately dismissed the significant economic contributions of legitimate POGOs and service providers that pay proper taxes and license fees to government.
Concerned for the welfare of their members, Pinoy sa POGO appealed to President Marcos to help Filipino POGO workers.
“We have well-paying jobs, Mr. President. We are pleading for your help by not allowing big business groups to take away our jobs and ruin the future of our families especially now that Christmas is just around the corner,” Santa Cruz said in Filipino.
“Aside from the illegal practice of ‘endo’, many elitist members of these business groups don’t even pay their workers and household staff decent salaries and benefits. Yet, they want to take away regular, well-paying jobs of POGO workers. Will they support our families if we’re jobless?,” she asked.
Pinoy sa POGO also criticized the business groups and some lawmakers for alleged “double standard” in dealing with online gaming.
“Their hearts bleed for Chinese mainlanders who gamble in POGOs but are strangely silent with regards the proliferation of local text and online gaming scams that lure Filipinos, including the youth, to gamble,” the group said.