Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Contributed photo)

Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers has warned the Bureau of Immigration (BI) against giving working visas to these foreigners within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in exchange for bribes. 

This, as Barbers noted that the Vietnamese, Malaysians, and Indonesians are had been flooding the country to replace Chinese workers in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs). 

Barbers said these people can enter the Philippines without any visa, since they hail from ASEAN member-nations. 

“We have seen the unabated influx of Chinese who were given student and retirees visas by the Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine Retirement Authority. We are not done yet with our investigations so I am warning these agencies not to extend working visas to these new arrivals who are being used to replace Chinese employees in the POGOs," he said. 

Barbers called the influx of ASEAN nationalist a "twist" in the going POGO issue. 

"I promise this, you, we will come out with our committee report recommending the appropriate actions when we are done with our investigations," added the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs chairman. 

“The same is true with Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation)," he noted, referring to the body that regulates POGOs. 

"If it is proven that all those raided POGOs engaged in criminal activities have been licensed, or that other licensed POGOs being protected and sponsored by some influential and notorious characters are found to be havens for criminal activities, we will make sure that those negligent, incompetent and corrupt will be punished,” Barbers said. 

Pagcor Chairman Alejandro Tengco recently grabbed headlines for saying that a former Cabinet member lobbied and used influence for the licensing of POGOs during the past administration. 

With this, Barbers urged PAGCOR Chairman Alejandro Tengco to disclose the names of the legitimate POGOs given licenses and accreditation by the regulatory agency. 

At the same time, the veteran solon also asked Tengco to cooperate with Congress and make public all POGOs operating without licenses.  

“POGOs, whether licensed, legitimate or illegal are nothing but fronts for criminal activities. Ranging from money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, protecting criminal syndicates engaged in murders, kidnapping, torture, rape and up to engaging in POGO politics, name it and surely it is all there. POGO is the one stop shop of criminal activities,” Barbers said.