Residents alarmed over POGO-like activities in Parañaque village; police to check

The Southern Police District (SPD) on Friday said it will check the alleged suspicious activities involving Chinese nationals in a village in Parañaque City after residents raised alarm over it.

“Kung meron mang ganyang nangyayaring insidente diyan, iva-validate po natin yan at aatasan po natin diyan ang atin pong chief of police,” SPD chief Police Brigadier General Leon Victor Rosete told Super Radyo dzbb in an interview.

(If there is an incident like that happening there, we will validate it and we will send our chief of police there.)

In a separate dzBB interview, village homeowner Janet Tayag-Ong said residents have expressed concerns over the prevalence of illegal activities and law enforcement raids in the area. Ong also pointed out that there is a high-rise building constructed in the village that shelters Chinese nationals.

According to Ong, they have reported their concern to different government agencies but they have yet to receive concrete feedback about the matter.

“Dahil po sa nangyari sa Bamban, doon po kami mas nag-aalala (Because of what happened in Bamban, we are more worried now),” she added, referring to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub that was raided by authorities in Tarlac.

Authorities are already looking into the possibility that the POGO in Bamban, Tarlac is connected to a recent human trafficking and online scamming bust in a village in Parañaque City.

The raid was launched on May 2 following complaints from homeowners who said that the structures violated their threee-story regulations. They also said this was not the first raid connected to POGO inside their village.

Rosete said the police will deploy personnel to the village to ensure peace and order as well as identify the “troublemakers” there.

“Patuloy din po ang ating coordination sa ating mga homeowners para po gayun ay ma-identify don po natin sino ang mga troublemakers diyan na Chinese nationals and at the same time ay matutukan na po natin,” he said.

(We will continue to coordinate with our homeowners so that we can identify who are the troublemakers there, who are Chinese nationals, so we can address it.) —KBK, GMA Integrated News