Individuals linked to outlawed Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) have switched to espionage against the country.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Spokesman Ferdinand Lavin made this revelation Monday, June 9, during the 15th and final hearing of the House quad-committee (quad-comm) in the 19th Congress.
During the marathon hearing, Manila 1st district Rep. Ernesto "Ernix" Dionisio asked Lavin, a resource person, about the status of the NBI's fight against POGO. As of 2025, POGOs--which thrived during the previous Duterte administration--had been prohibited by President Marcos.
Apparently, POGO workers who are on the run from the law have switched to other illegal gimmicks--and spying on the Philippines is one of them.
"Ito po yung scamming (This is about scamming). After the banning of the POGO, nag-iba na po sila ng operations (they've switched their operations). And we conducted some operations in violation of the Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act," Lavin told the special joint panel.
"Ang observation kanina (The observation earlier was...this is already spilling over [to] matters affecting our national security. As a matter of fact in some operations by the NBI relative to the issues of foreign espionage, nakita namin that we are completing our data on the nexus, yung interconnection...between yung operations ng POGO at ng espionage (we saw that we are completing our data on the nexus, the interconnection...between the POGO operations and espionage)," he said.
"And once we are done with our investigations on this, we will submit to the comsec [a] copy of our report. We have filed cases against a good number of foreign nationals involved in the various espionage activities," added Lavin.
"So madaling salita, ang POGO ay kunektado sa espionage sa bansa natin? (In other words, POGO is connected to espionage in our country?" Dionisio asked the NBI official.
"We are going into that direction Mr. Chair," Lavin replied.
"We are doing some digital forensic examination on the gadgets we have taken into custody or seize during the various operations both in the POGO or the financial scamming activities and the espionage activities," he further told the quad-comm.