The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) on Wednesday, November 23 submitted to the Senate a copy of its road map which they plan to adopt to grow the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) industry.
This roadmap, according to the state gaming regulatory agency, will help eradicate the so-called “social ills” associated with POGOs and help the government earn billions in revenues.
The objective of the roadmap, the PAGCOR said in their presentation at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, is “to achieve the optimal number of licensees and increase the total POGO income gradually in the next five years, but with a more robust regulatory framework which will eliminate illegal online gambling operations and the social ills associated with it.”
PAGCOR said it expects the total income from the POGO industry to hit 3.4 billion pesos by 2023; 4.8 billion pesos by 2024; 6.2 billion pesos by 2025; 7.7 billion pesos by 2026; and 10.2 billion pesos by 2027 by adopting the roadmap, which they said is “a work in progress.”
But Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate ways and means panel, said he is unimpressed with the PAGCOR’s plan and downplayed the state gaming regulator’s roadmap.
“Well, para sa akin (for me), toilet paper yun (that’s just toilet paper). Four pages lang? Marami na akong nakitang roadmap and typically yan makapal, punong-puno ng detalye,” Gatchalian told reporters in an interview after the panel’s third hearing.
“Importante yung assumptions. Pero nakita natin kanina, di nila alam kung ilan ang POGO operations globally. So walang mga assumptions (It’s important to show assumptions. But what we saw earlier, they do not even know how many POGO operations are there globally. So there are no assumptions),” he said.
“It’s a four-page document na walang mga assumptions, walang basis (that has no assumptions, no basis),” he pointed out.
“In my entire life, this is the shortest roadmap na nakita ko. In fact, hindi siya road eh, parang eskinita lang siya (it’s not a road, it’s just an alley). Because it’s just four pages,” he told PAGCOR officials present at the hearing.
Renfred Tan, PAGCOR’s offshore gaming and licensing department senior manager, during the hearing assured that PAGCOR would improve its coordination with the other government agencies to curb the social costs or social ills that are associated with POGOs, particularly kidnapping, human trafficking, among others.
Tan said PAGCOR believes these “social ills or social costs stem from illegal operations and not from those that are licensed by PAGCOR.”
“It is imperative that we have a mechanism in cooperation with other government agencies to immediately distinguish illegal operations from legal operations,” Tan said at the hearing.
“In the short term that would be very helpful for the POGO industry to differentiate itself... to show that it is a business that does not come with illegal or social costs that are associated with it. Kailangan mapakita na ‘yung (There is a need to show that the) social costs stem from those which are illegal and not from those which are duly licensed by PAGCOR,” he further said.
Tan attributed the “social costs” associated with POGOs from the illegal recruitment methods and unfair labor practices committed by the unlicensed operators.
“It stems from their illegal recruitment methods that we cannot check immediately kasi nga po illegal ang oeprations nila (precisely because their operations are illegal),” he pointed out.
“Especially during the time when the pandemic hit and we closed our borders. They had difficulties in recruiting foreign workers. So ang nangyari po nag aagawan sila ng employees (They were pirating people) and some of them had unfair practices in getting or recruiting employees,” the PAGCOR official pointed out.
“So that’s when there were news reports of kidnapping, of forced labor, because (those in) the illegal operations were trying to secure employees when we had lockdowns. And when foreign employees cannot come in,” Tan said.
However, Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, said it is imperative that PAGCOR fully exercises its mandate as the regulatory agency both on the licensed and unlicensed operators.
“As the regulator, you should be strictly monitoring them. You take the reins in controlling these operations. If a kidnapping incident happens, you should be monitoring. You know there are illegal operators, then you report them to the police,” Dela Rosa responded to Tan.
“You cannot just claim that it’s not part of your jurisdiction, and say you are only responsible for those who are legally registered with PAGCOR. Because these are POGO operations, and these are part of your turf. Take the reins in controlling these operations. Deploy your operatives. Do your work, so in that manner, we can eradicate the ‘social costs’,” the former PNP chief said.
Dela Rosa also told Tan that they have to take into account the PNP’s records that there are also licensed POGOs that are involved in kidnapping.
“That was mentioned during the last hearing—two companies that are registered by your office. You should have explicitly warned them that if they do something illegal, they would be immediately deported,” the senator said.
“That’s just enforcement. We lack enforcement, and coordination. The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is there to deport undesirable aliens. PNP is there to conduct raids. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is there to investigate. Let’s cooperate here,” Dela Rosa emphasized.