The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) is eyeing the deportation of 1,000 POGO workers in the next two to three weeks, according to spokesperson Winston Casio.
According to Casio, PAOCC, the Bureau of Immigration, and the Department of Justice Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking have reached an agreement to streamline the deportation process for POGO workers in the country.
“If NBI clearances can be issued quickly, it will make it easier for us to issue travel documents,” he said in a televised briefing.
“So give and take, two to three weeks we have major deportations happening in the Philippines,” he added.
Casio said the POGO workers set to be deported will be known as “POGO 1000.”
He added that the 1,000 POGO workers have been detained by PAOCC from their raids across various establishments in Makati, Pasay, and Parañaque.
PAOCC said the agency will prioritize POGO workers from Myanmar, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and then China.
Meanwhile, PAOCC said they are confident in closing down their operations.
“We already know where they are, we are just creating a legal basis for when we catch them because we cannot simply swoop down a building without a proper legal basis, the government will be sued for that,” he noted.
In 2024, during his third State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. banned all POGOs and ordered the shutdown of POGO operations by December.