Senator Win Gatchalian (Senate PRIB)

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has castigated the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) over its issuance of provisional licenses to “high-risk” Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

In a statement, the senator said such classification should be enough basis for PAGCOR to reject their license application.

“Itigil na natin itong kalokohan na ito dahil ginagamit lang ng mga kawatan ang kunwari’y legitimate license nila para lokohin tayong lahat,” said Gatchalian.

(Let's stop this nonsense because these thieves are just using their supposedly legitimate license to fool us all.)

Gatchalian cited the case of Zun Yuan Technology Inc, a POGO company based in Bamban, Tarlac that was recently subjected to a police raid.

PAGCOR deemed the company as “high-risk” based on its risk profiling; however, the regulator still issued it a provisional license.

“Kapag high-risk, hindi na dapat payagan dahil ibig sabihin delikado na ‘yan. At totoo nga, nagtuloy-tuloy pa ang iligal na operasyon nila. Kung walang mga complainant, baka marami pang human trafficking, torture, at mga online scam ang nangyari,” Gatchalian said.

(When it's high-risk, it shouldn't be allowed because that means it's dangerous. And indeed, their illegal operations continued. If there were no complainants, there might have been more human trafficking, torture, and online scams.)

The senator noted that the provisional license itself created problems for the regulator.

He pointed out that the process of granting such licenses was not even included in the guidelines that PAGCOR formulated to supervise operations of POGOs in the country.

“You are violating your own guidelines and that’s why all of these crimes are being committed,” he stressed.

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said Zun Yuan also failed to meet a PAGCOR requirement that mandates at least P100 million with a paid-up capital stock of at least P25 million for an authorized capital stock (ACS).

According to him, the minimum capital requirement has not been met when the provisional license was issued by PAGCOR.

The senator said PAGCOR also fell short in properly conducting a probity check when it failed to find out that the residential address of Jamielyn Cruz, the Chairman of the Board of Zun Yuan, was non-existent.

“All of these scenarios were already red flags for Zun Yuan not to operate. The process of approving POGO licenses should be made simple: either they are qualified or not and they should be granted or denied a license based on their qualification. Clearly, Zun Yuan wasn’t qualified from the very start,” he explained.