Finance Secretary Ralph Recto's move to recommend to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. a total ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) operations in the country was backed by several senators on Thursday. 

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian urged all stakeholders to support the calls for the total banning of POGO operations in the Philippines amid revelations from several Senate inquiries that many gaming hubs, whether with legal or no permit, have been implicated in criminalities. 

“I fully support Finance Secretary Ralph Recto’s recommendation to the President to impose a total ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators in the country,” he said. 

“This is precisely what I have been advocating for, given the fact that many POGO companies are linked to various illegal activities, including human and sex trafficking, serious illegal detention, money laundering, torture, and online scamming, which undermine national security and social order,” he added. 

Gatchalian believes that the presence of POGOs has “created significant economic and regulatory challenges” to the country and “diverted resources that could be better utilized elsewhere.”

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel lamented that some gaming hubs have secured licenses and permits to operate but undermined the country’s policies by conducting illegal undercover activities. 

“Some secure licenses/permits and then allow them to lapse and yet continue with operations, this time most likely illegal (in the sense of criminal) ones, still taking advantage of the fact that once upon a time they had licenses/permits,” he said. 

“Some really don’t have licenses/permits from the very start but got their foreign managers and workers from authorized POGOs,” he added. 

Pimentel said allowing the entire POGO system has created problems because personalities and organizations took advantage of the authorization given to them. 

“The system has been gamed. Loopholes have been taken advantage of. The regulators at various levels have been penetrated and compromised. Time to declare all POGO activities illegal hence no cover whatsoever can be used,” he said. 

Recto earlier said that a letter recommending a total ban on POGOs had already been sent to President Marcos “a few weeks ago”, but they had not discussed it yet in person. 

“We did write a letter because we were asked to make a recommendation. It's up to the President to make the decision,” he noted.

The country’s finance chief earlier lamented that he is not against “POGOs per se” but the illegal activities that were discovered in those gaming hubs in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga urged him to recommend the stoppage of POGO operations in the country. 

National Economic and Development Authority chief Arsenio Balisacan also expressed support for the ban on POGO in the Philippines, despite a possible revenue loss amounting to P20 billion.

“It may be a big number but the cost and particularly social cost of POGOs are quite high,” Balisacan said. 

Meanwhile, Senator Joel Villanueva said the stance of Recto and Balisacan to recommending the total ban on POGOs should be discussed in the next Cabinet meeting with President Marcos. 

Citing a report from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Villanueva said only P10.321 billion was collected from legal POGOs in 2023, equivalent only to less than half of the P24 billion revenue projection of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. 

Villanueva thanked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for its prompt preparations to assist at least 22,000 POGO workers who will lose their jobs should the total ban be implemented.  

“For our part, we have been pushing for the laws and policies which will not only ban POGOs but all forms of online gambling,” he said.

Villanueva also urged his co-senators to prioritize the measure seeking to ban POGOs and all forms of online gambling in the country.

Senate Bill 1281 proposed that any person involved in online gambling shall be punished by imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to P500,000.