NBI to search upper floors of raided illegal clinic catering to POGO workers

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Sunday said it will search the other floors of a three-storey building in Makati City that houses an illegal clinic catering to workers at Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO). 

NBI Director Jaime Santiago said that they only had a search warrant for the ground floor of the building where they found an operating clinic that catered to Chinese and Vietnamese patients, when it was only registered as a pharmacy.

“Doon na lang namin napag-alaman na 'yung itaas ay storage ng mga gamot nila, but we cannot go up there... Hanggang 3rd floor eh,” he said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview on Sunday.

(We found out that they were storing their medicine on the upper floor. The building has three floors.)

Santiago said they have coordinated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and will revisit the site on Monday. 

“Using their visitation power, makakapanik na kami pare-pareho sa itaas [we could all go upstairs],” he said. 

The raided clinic which is located in Barangay San Isidro in Makati is allegedly connected to an illegal POGO hub in the Calabarzon region that is also being monitored by the NBI.

There were two Chinese and two Vietnamese patients, as well seven Filipino clinic staff, of whom two are doctors, at the illegal clinic during the raid.

Santiago said the two Filipino doctors have been “uncooperative.”

Also found in the clinic were Chinese medicine that are not registered at the FDA.

“'Yung clinic, hindi dapat clinic kundi botika ang kanilang lisensya. We have a certification from the DOH that that place is supposed to be a botika lamang, hindi clinic. Hindi magke-cater sa mga patients, magko-cure ng patients,” the NBI director said.

(The clinic should not be operating as a clinic, but as a pharmacy, based on its license. We have a certification from the DOH that proves that the place is supposed to be a pharmacy only, not a clinic that would cater to and cure patients.)

Santiago said they are looking at other areas where such clinics for illegal POGO workers are operating.

In May, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) also conducted a raid against an illegally operating hospital allegedly linked to POGOs in Pasay City.

According to PAOCC spokesperson Winston John Casio, this “fake hospital” might be where the injured, sick, or tortured POGO workers go or are brought to, so they didn’t have to be admitted in a licensed Philippine hospital where they will be asked to present proof of identity.—RF, GMA Integrated News