The offshore gaming hubs banned by President Marcos were found to be harboring foreign fugitives, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said.
PAOCC Executive Director Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz (Photo from PAOCC Facebook page)
The fugitives, mostly Chinese nationals, were using the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) facilities as hideaways.
“Iyong mga POGO kasi even before ginagawang pugad ito or taguan nung mga (The POGOs are using these as a den or hideaway of) wanted persons from other countries,” PAOCC Executive Director Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said.
The PAOCC, together with the Pasay City local government unit, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Department of Justice’s cybercrime division, arrested 403 foreign nationals during a raid of the One Wheels condominium building in Pasay City.
Of that number, 13 Chinese fugitives were found. They were found to have outstanding cases related to illegal gambling and fraud.
The PAOCC said it also traced “three Chinese nationals who had direct ties to previous high-profile anti-POGO operations conducted at Smart Web Technology and Lucky South 99.”
But Cruz said this was not the first time that they found fugitives to be hiding in POGO hubs, stating that they found 11, nine, and six fugitives in separate operations.
“So, halos lahat ng ni-raid namin na mga POGO hubs mayroong nakukuhang mga wanted persons. So, tingin namin itong mga POGO hubs ginagawa nilang taguan ng mga wanted persons (we found wanted persons in almost all of the POGO hubs we raided. So, we think they are really using the POGO hubs as hideaway of wanted persons),” the official explained.
He also dismissed reports that only Chinese fugitives were found in the raided POGO facilities.
“It’s not only China. Mayroong (There are) wanted from other countries also. Iba iba, hindi lang China (They’re different, not just from China),” Cruz said.
However, he admitted that there may be more Chinese fugitives being found because most of the POGO workers they have arrested were also Chinese nationals.
The raid of the One Wheels condominium led to the arrest of 403 nationals—209 Chinese, 132 Vietnamese, 24 South Koreans, 14 Indonesians, 12 Myanmar nationals, 11 Malaysians, and 1 South African from Madagascar.
They were involved in various fraudulent activities, such as cryptocurrency scams, love scams, and investment fraud; mass spamming operations using text blasters; cold crypto wallets suspected to contain illicit digital assets; and use of messaging applications—Viber and Telegram—to communicate with scam victims.
The Philippine government’s crackdown on POGO facilities and their workers happened as President Marcos announced a POGO ban during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year.
He then subsequently ordered the closure of all facilities by Dec. 31. Chinese POGO workers would also need to leave the country by that time as the cancellation of their working visas meant they are now illegal aliens who have been overstaying in the country.
In his SONA, Marcos cited the crimes—human trafficking and scams—associated with POGOs as the reason for his order to ban them.