House committee approves bill banning POGO in PH

The House games and amusements panel on Monday approved a bill banning Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) due to the spate of crimes linked to them, among other security issues.

The committee approved House Bill 5802 authored by Manila lawmaker Bienvenido Abante.

It was Bulacan representative Augustina Pancho who made the motion for the approval of the measure, while Cagayan de Oro lawmaker Rufus Rodriguez said the government should not turn a blind eye to police records showing that 4,039 individuals fell victims to POGO-related crimes, including human trafficking, in the first six months of 2023 alone.

Other POGO-related crimes include forcible abduction, homicide, illegal detention, theft, robbery extortion, serious physical injuries, swindling, grave coercion, investment scam, cryptocurrency scam and love scam.

“Can you imagine, an inter gamut of criminal law is already included here from the felonies under the Revised Penal Code,” Rodriguez said.

“This has been the situation from the time I filed this [Resolution] in August 2023, [and] many more crimes have been committed. This is why I would say whatever the benefits accrued to our country [by POGO], it has produced grave concerns and problems of peace and order. POGO has inflicted undesired results on our people,” he added.

State regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), for its part, said that measures have been implemented to prevent POGO-related crimes, and as such, the number of POGO in the country was reduced to 75 from as much as almost 300 in 2019.

“Less than that number (75) is Chinese-owned. We were able to weed out [illegal] POGO hubs in Central Luzon, Clark...We deported close to 2,000 foreigners,” Pagcor chief Al Tengco said.

“A lot of licensees who got their license during the previous administration were denied license to operate [under the new administration] because we believe that they are not fit to do business here,” Tengco added.

House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list, for her part, said that banning POGOs was necessary given the number of human trafficking incidents stemming from it, including the November 8, 2023 raid by the government agents at a Parañaque City POGO office.

During the raid, authorities rescued 16 women found at a prostitution den on the office's seventh floor. 

“While offshore gaming operators have been in operation in the Philippines since 2003, it was only 'regulated' by the Philippine Government in 2016," said Brosas. "Despite such regulation, there are still human trafficking cases connected to POGOs."

The representative recounted that in a letter sent by the National Bureau of Investigation to the Senate, the NBI said that out of 113 POGO-related cases from November 2019 to March 2023, 65 cases, or 58%, involved human trafficking. 

“It is imperative that we finally enact a law explicitly banning POGOs in the country. The Philippines cannot just take pride in being deemed the most gender-equal country in Asia while turning a blind eye to the abuse and victimization of Asian women in the illicit operations of POGOs within the country,” Brosas added. —KG, GMA Integrated News