Senators Risa Hontiveros and Joel Villanueva are supporting the administration's signing of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the implementation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) ban.

For Hontiveros, such a move "should have been done a long time ago," while Villanueva expressed his gratitude for the administration for giving value to the role of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in fighting POGO.

"I welcome the newly signed Standard Operating Procedures on the implementation of the POGO ban," Hontiveros said.

"Sa mga hearing na pinamunuan ko sa Senado, lumabas ang katotohanan na hindi simpleng sugal ang ginagawa dyan (In the hearings I led in the Senate, the truth emerged that what was happening there wasn't just simple gambling),” she further said.

"Nilugmok lang ng mga POGO ang ating bayan sa kumunoy at kwentado po natin ang halaga ng pinsala nito sa mga Pilipino (POGOs have only dragged our nation into a quagmire, and we have calculated the extent of the damage it has caused Filipinos.)," Villanueva, for his part, said.

"Bilang isa sa may akda ng Anti-POGO Act sa Senado, paulit ulit po nating binigyang diin ang halos P100 bilyong lugi ng ating pamahalaan dahil sa operasyon ng mga POGO (As one of the authors of the Anti-POGO Act in the Senate, we have repeatedly emphasized the nearly P100 billion loss our government incurred due to POGO operations)," he added.

Saying POGO "has no place in the country," Hontiveros said the newly signed SOP “must go after that entire architecture, and the whole of government must not stop until the entire structure comes down."

Villanueva also noted that POGO firms contributed nothing to the country’s society.

"Sa halip ay katakut-takot na salot pa ang dala nila gaya ng krimen at iba pang mga iligal na gawain (Instead, it brings a terrifying plague of problems such as crime and other illegal activities to us)," Villanueva said.