More POGO risks

Serious national security risks emerged last week after the Senate conducted its initial probe into two recently raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) facilities in Bamban, Tarlac.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, for instance, revealed the intelligence agencies had raised suspicions the raided POGO hub wasn’t merely about gambling and internet-based scams but was also about the more troubling surveillance and hacking activities of a mercenary group aiding an unidentified foreign power.

Such damning allegations the relevant security officials can’t now readily ignore. More so since there are suspicions some powerful forces are either hushing up matters or sabotaging the Senate probe.

Hontiveros during the hearing, for example, asked why Police Col. George Buyacao, the police official who spearheaded the raid on the Bamban POGO complex, was transferred to another post.

Buyacao was the head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the National Capital Region which led the investigation into the Bamban POGO hub.

(The raided POGO hub is located inside the Baofu compound, a 10-hectare property behind the Bamban town hall consisting of substantial buildings and luxurious facilities of Zun Yuan Technology Inc., a licensed POGO. Zun Yuan was raided last March on suspicion it was involved in crypto and love scams. Authorities said Zun Yuan was the new name of Hong Sheng Gaming Technology Inc. which was raided in February 2023.)

Hontiveros did not indicate exactly where Buyacao and his fellow officers were transferred.

She, however, said, “Since they are now assigned in far-flung areas like Mindanao and the Visayas, we have to send them to Metro Manila via plane. We’re afraid this case might be ruined if they won’t be able to come here immediately for the hearings during the trial.”

As of this writing, the police hierarchy has yet to adequately explain if the transfers of the police officers were regular.

Nonetheless, the Senate’s obvious message to the police brass is to clear matters before the Senate resumes its hearings.

The raid on the Baofu compound also raised questions on the extent of the Bamban local government’s involvement in the POGO hub.

During the initial Senate hearing, relatively obscure Bamban Mayor Alice L. Guo’s questionable identity and citizenship were the hearing’s intense focus.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said there were “damning pieces of evidence” suggesting Guo’s potential involvement in the operation of the POGO facility.

Guo, however, denied any connection to Zuan. But she did acknowledge she was an incorporator of Baofu Corp., the lot owner. She claimed she had divested her shares before the raid.

But it was Guo’s personal circumstances that raised more eyebrows — a newbie politician whom even Bamban residents weren’t familiar with before her election.

Hontiveros couldn’t help but notice there were no public records of Guo’s education, medical history, and the circumstances of her birth.

Guo claimed she was homeschooled from grade school to high school and she did not go to college, hence she had no school records. She, however, could not recall the name of the institution which provided her homeschooling service.

Guo also admitted her birth was only formally registered when she was 17 years old. She said there were no hospital records of her birth as she was born at home.

As things now stand for her, Guo does need to undergo further questioning by the senators.

Still, her predicament raises the crucial point that the increasingly cozy and lucrative relationships between local politicians and secretive POGO outfits have become a problematic national security issue.

“If these scam hubs are so lucrative, hindi na ito titigil (they will not stop). This will just grow and grow. And before we know it, we will be faced with a threat to our national security like nothing we have ever seen before,” Hontiveros warned last week.