Even his critics could not contain themselves over how President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. chose to end his last State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on 22 July. In what could only be described as a masterstroke, the President brought the roof down with thunderous applause sweeping the Batasan session hall when he announced a total ban on all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).
“Effective today, all POGOs are banned,” the President declared, ordering the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) to end all POGO operations by yearend and the labor department to find jobs for the Filipino workers that would be displaced.
“This was something people have long been expecting, thus the kind of response that welcomed the President’s announcement,” said UP political science professor Maria Ela Atienza.
The order has been given, the applause has died down, now the hard work begins. How to dismantle these gaming sites which started entering the country around 2003, intensifying in terms of hubs and workers in 2016 when former President Rodrigo Duterte relaxed internet gambling policies by justifying the revenue and jobs to be generated.
PAGCOR said the number of licensed POGOs peaked at over 300 in 2019, contributing over P7 billion in license fees. Chinese nationals, many undocumented, came in droves to work in the POGOs. The Department of Labor and Employment said that of the over 118,000 POGO workers, only 21,000 were Filipinos.
Today, PAGCOR head Alejandro Tengco says there are 43 Internet Gaming Licensees (IGL), which is the new name for POGOs, employing some 40,000 Filipino workers.
The ban on POGOs, as far as Tengco is concerned, poses more of a challenge to Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos.
“All I have to do to comply with the President’s order is not to license new applications and renewals of existing IGL licensees,” Tengco said.
As of 16 July, PAGCOR’s licensing department has listed 45 IGLs, two of which were suspended, leaving 43 in operation.
If the IGLs are transformed into land-based casinos within, say, an integrated gaming resort, they could be licensed by PAGCOR. Although, remarked Tengco, “those require mammoth investments.”
There is the fear that many of the POGOS banned by PAGCOR in 2023 could now be operating underground, which then would be a challenge for law enforcers to reckon with.
Banning POGOs, particularly those had gone underground, could only be effectively implemented with the cooperation of the local government units (LGUs) and law enforcement authorities.
One agency that particularly bears watching in the implementation of the President’s ban on POGOS is the Bureau of Immigration.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who has been among those vociferously calling for a total ban on POGOs, and as a result has reportedly received death threats, is outspoken about the BI’s failure to bar foreign fugitives from entering the country.
Citing arrests made by the police of foreign fugitives employed in POGOs, Gatchalian has questioned how these characters could have sneaked past the BI.
Last March, Gatchalian, pointing to Taiwanese fugitive Chang Chia Wei, one of 500 foreigners picked up in a raid on a POGO hub in Bamban, Tarlac, asked, “How did fugitives wanted in another country enter our country? Were they able to sneak in undetected, or were they deliberately enabled to pass through immigration?”
Said Gatchalian, “Foreign POGO workers turning out to be fugitives in their countries have become a common occurrence in all the POGO raids in recent years. This indicates that they are part of organized criminal syndicates. It boggles the mind that the BI is unable to detect the entry of these fugitives, an indication BI personnel could be in cahoots with these fugitives.”
He wondered if the maneuvering of these foreigners past immigration was similar to the “pastillas” modus operandi where foreigners got through Immigration in exchange for money rolled in white paper made to look like the milk pastry called “pastillas.”
Looking to the exodus of foreign POGO workers by yearend, we wonder how much “pastillas” will change hands to allow these workers to remain in the country and continue with their shenanigans?