POGO corruption

Tracking down 11,000 “fugitives” is undoubtedly a tall order. But the sooner the authorities can get their act together, the better this government can prevent potential corruption.

The 11,000 “fugitives” in this case are the Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) workers who disappeared after POGOs officially ceased operations last 31 December.

By this time, these “fugitive” have presumably made serious efforts to blend into local communities and make themselves literally invisible to law enforcers.

These remaining POGO workers are expected to do this since they are, for all intents and purposes, the criminal “hardcore” elements of the outlawed POGO industry.

In contrast, those POGO workers who voluntarily left were presumably the non-essential workers who were confident they wouldn’t face, for instance, summary arrest upon their arrival in their countries of origin, like China or Vietnam.

As such, these remaining criminal elements — whom local law enforcement suspect are largely connected with the shadowy and violent Chinese Triad gangs — will not only throw down obstacles before pursuing law enforcers but also exploit the weaknesses and inefficiencies of the hunters themselves.

The authorities so far haven’t exactly revealed how they’ll go about tracking down the “fugitives.”

But the authorities say they’ll first forcibly squeeze all relevant information on the whereabouts of these workers from the defunct POGO outfits that had employed them.

Whether the outlawed POGO outfits will cooperate or not remains to be seen, however.

Which now unfortunately only means that the authorities presently have either limited or no immediate actionable intelligence on these basic questions: who are these missing POGO workers, where could they have gone to, and what are they still capable of doing?

Of the three questions, the more serious is probably what these “fugitives” and their influential backers may still have up their sleeves.

And, going by how far they’ve corrupted various government agencies, that might still be considerable.

This can be readily seen, for example, from the fact that it is only now the Office of the Solicitor General is trying to seriously trace and cancel the illegal birth certificates that were issued to these POGO workers and officials.

Besides fraudulent birth certificates, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra says his office will start seizing properties and assets illegally acquired by these foreign nationals.

Guevarra’s belated move came after Senator Sherwin Gatchalian who, in summing up the Senate’s explosive investigation into POGOs, noted the fake birth certificates “enabled foreigners to become instant Filipinos…which in turn enabled them to buy properties and start businesses.”

In itself, how POGO workers and their shadowy backers managed to easily acquire fake identification documents is an ongoing scandal that highlighted how easy it is to corrupt our government bureaucrats.

Admittedly, rooting out and booting out these entrenched corrupted bureaucrats will take time and disciplined effort.

But the longer the government takes its sweet time, the more likely it will benefit the outlawed POGO workers who continue to be holed up in their properties.

Yet, going after corrupted bureaucrats faking birth certificates doesn’t mean that efforts to corrupt others in our porous government bureaucracy have stopped altogether.

Corrupt bureaucrats pulling a fast one by aiding those already caught in the dragnet against POGOs, for instance, was evident amid the revelation last week that unnamed Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials allegedly facilitated bail for detained alleged top POGO financier Tony Yang.

Embarrassed senior BI officials quickly blocked Yang’s — whom authorities consider a flight risk —underhanded effort to get out of jail.

In sum, there will be other ways to corrupt government bureaucrats, including local government officials seeking election funds, once enforcement operations against underground POGOs goes into full swing.

Consequently, the senior officials responsible better brace themselves.