POGO malevolence persists

Several shady foreign personalities connected to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) racket, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has since banned, have refused to leave the country and are even purchasing properties to launder the substantial amount they have accumulated.

Nosey Tarsee said a ringleader has bought up 23 hectares in tourists’ paradise Boracay to build a resort while others are trying to worm their way out of trouble through attempted bribery.

A mischievous imp said Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado confirmed blocking an internal recommendation to release Chinese Tony Yang on bail.

Yang, who remains in BI detention, is facing charges related to POGO activities.

A resolution recommending bail was passed during Viado’s temporary absence but the BI chief ordered it rescinded upon his return.

Viado described the move as a “clear effort to slip this resolution past me” and emphasized that Yang will remain in custody.

The Commissioner declined to identify individuals who may have pressured him, saying only that he preferred to keep the matter within the agency to avoid “washing dirty laundry in public.”

Tony Yang is the brother of Michael Yang, a former economic adviser to ex-President Rodrigo Duterte. His case has drawn significant attention amid broader concerns over POGO-linked criminal activity and law enforcement corruption. TDT

CSP rules need overhaul

Power consumers have asked the Department of Energy to scrap and replace the current rules on the competitive selection process (CSP) to further bring down costs.

A 3 June letter to acting Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the DOE’s existing circular on CSP “clearly failed to uphold its core objectives of transparency, fair competition, and least-cost power supply procurement.”

A consumer group said it continued to monitor rates and power supply deals by distribution utilities and found that “the CSP mechanism has not delivered meaningful market competition.”

“On the contrary, it has largely preserved the dominance of incumbent and affiliated generation companies. No new independent or reliable power suppliers have been introduced into the generation mix in the past decade,” Garin was told.

The group also criticized the continued award of PSAs by distribution utilities to their affiliates, saying this discourages independent competitors.

A comprehensive overhaul of the CSP circular, starting with a DOE-led, multi-stakeholder review, and called on the department to conduct a full audit of utilities’ PSAs from 2019 to 2024 to assess compliance with CSP rules and procurement guidelines.