PAOCC has leads on source of POGO raid leaks

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said Saturday it has leads on who are the sources of an alleged “leakage” of a plan to raid the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Porac, Pampanga.

“Meron na kaming mga leads na nakuha nitong nakaraang tatlong araw (We already gathered leads in these past three days),” PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

Casio floated the possibility of an apparent leak when its operation in Porac POGO hub resulted only in the rescue of 158 foreign nationals, which were far fewer than what was believed to be 1,000 foreigners working in the offshore gaming.

The PAOCC official said that on Monday, next week, the anti-crime body will coordinate with other agencies involved in the POGO raid to disclose the leads they have.

“Para sila yung bumaybay kung saan patungo yung leads na ‘yun (So they can track where these leads go),” Casio said.

“We will give them the leads then we will allow the agencies to do the investigation,” he said.

Nine bodies found

Amid reports that bodies of nine foreign nationals were found in different parts of Pampanga, Casio said that PAOCC requested to Pampanga Police District to furnish the anti-crime body with a copy of the report.

The PAOCC official said the anti-crime body is closely following the recent development as “I got three calls already, one from the Malaysian Embassy, another from China, and another from Vietnam.”

“We would like to find out… as one of the embassies said how the Pampanga police were able to arrive at the conclusion that x number of bodies were actually Chinese nationals,” Casio said.

“According to [one] embassy they have not received any communication from the Pampanga police in relation to those bodies. Remember Chinese nationals can look like Singaporeans, Malaysians and even Taiwanese,” he said. —VAL, GMA Integrated News