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Salceda insists that total ban on POGOs makes no sense

Philippines | National

Salceda insists that total ban on POGOs makes no sense

By Ellson Quismorio

Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda (Rep. Salceda's office)

Economist-solon Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda has reiterated his stance against the proposed total ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), saying it defies legal logic. According to Salceda, the Philippines could lose up to P8 billion in tax revenue once all POGOs pack up and leave. This is on top of the P192 billion gross value added loss in real estate, labor, ancillary cost and other related services and industries that help run POGOs, said the House Committee on Ways and Means chairman. “More importantly, there isn’t any legal logic by which we can discriminate against POGOs as a class of businesses. Making arbitrary or special exceptions against a business hurts our credibility," the Bicolano said. Over the past year, POGOs have gained a bad reputation after they were linked to the illegal drug trade and foreign crime syndicates. Salceda's counterpart in the upper chamber, Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, has even gone as far as to suggest the total stoppage of all POGO operations in the Philippines. "A phaseout of an entire industry on the basis of the violations of some of them does not make sense if you apply it to any other business either. So, I disagree with both a ban and a phaseout," Salceda said.

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