SCUTTLEBUTT

Rise of sleeper cells

As suspicions about sleeper cells or dormant spies of a foreign power planted in various agencies and local positions rise, the links between Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and maintaining the espionage network were laid bare during recent public hearings at the House of Representatives.

On 4 June 2024, government operatives raided Lucky South 99’s 10-hectare property in Porac, Pampanga, which comprised 46 buildings, villas, a golf course and other structures.

More or less 200 Filipino and foreign workers were rescued during the raids. Mobile devices containing videos of women being sold online for sexual services were also found, along with sex toys and alleged People’s Liberation Army uniforms, among other items.

The hub had permits to operate as a business process outsourcing company in 2019 and 2020, but it started functioning as a POGO hub from 2021 to 2024.

Lucky South 99 was already raided and shut down by the DILG on 17 September 2022, also over alleged involvement in illegal activities, but it continued operating based on the findings of the Quad committee that held the inquiry.

It also secured offshore gaming licenses to operate in Laoag City and Ilocos Norte.

A name that keeps cropping up in the probe is the treasurer of the Philippine Full Win Group of Companies, which is engaged in fundamental properties. It was established in partnership with a prominent adviser of the previous administration based in Xiamen.

The individual’s name was first floated during the Senate Blue Ribbon inquiry regarding the Pharmally controversy. She insisted that she is the corporate treasurer of Pharmally Biological, which has no connection with Pharmally Pharmaceutical.

Yet her husband is the financial manager of Pharmally Pharmaceutical, while the economic adviser was known as the financier of Pharmally.

The POGO personality also served as the corporate secretary of Pai Hong Realty Group Corp., a property development company established with a particular economic adviser’s dummy.

The POGO personality and the mayor of a district in Pampanga, who has been stripped of her position as she was suspected of being a Chinese spy, seem to have been planted with similar purposes.

She filed a Certificate of Candidacy as a congressional aspirant for Quezon City without meeting the residency requirement. She purchased her Novaliches property only in June 2021. Her residence address is in the swank South Forbes, Makati City.

The POGO personality and the mayor of a district in Pampanga, who has been stripped of her position as she was suspected of being a Chinese spy, seem to have been planted with similar purposes.

Her daughter won as SK Chairperson but failed to achieve the SK Federation presidency of her district since she could not speak Tagalog fluently. Her birth certificate was allegedly rigged, similar to the House-discovered modus operandi of the terminated mayor, which included a late registry, a fake address, and a midwife who facilitated the birth.

A source said the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Elections should check the credentials of several 12 May candidates, since planting sleeper cells seems widespread.

P20 per kilo of rice not that simple

The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) ambitious plan to fulfill the Marcos administration’s vow to give Filipinos P20 per kilo rice will be a complicated undertaking and will not be a quick fix for the elections.

DA plans to sustain it through 2028 to keep the country’s staple food affordable and protect consumers from volatile price increases.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said the program, which will run until December in the Visayas, is now being reviewed and fine-tuned to expand to other regions.

The National Food Authority (NFA) is now repositioning rice stocks in the Visayas in preparation for the rollout.

According to Tiu-Laurel, it will take several weeks to transfer tens and even hundreds of thousands of 50-kilo bags of rice from NFA warehouses, particularly from Mindoro, to various parts of the Visayas.

The Commission on Elections cleared the program, since it will require government subsidies that will be shared equally by the Food Terminal Inc. and participating local government units.

NFA’s buffer stocks recently reached a five-year high of 378,157 metric tons, equivalent to 7.56 million bags, enough to feed the population for 10 days.

NFA warehouses in Iloilo currently hold the equivalent of 862,409 sacks of rice, but Mindoro will be tapped to supplement areas with limited production, including Cebu, Negros Island, Samar and Leyte.

Transferring 40,000 sacks of rice from Mindoro to Cebu could take up to a month.

The Visayas was chosen for the pilot phase because of its higher-than-average poverty incidence of over 10.9 percent, with regions like Negros Island and Eastern Visayas recording poverty rates of 22.6 percent and 20.3 percent, respectively.