Speaker: Syndicates behind POGO-linked crimes will be punished

Those who commit crimes through POGOs will be held accountable, Speaker Martin Romualdez said Monday.

“If POGOs only stayed with what the law provided…but they branched out to scam farms…love scam, human trafficking, prostitution and pornography,” Romualdez said after the House leaders’ inspection of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) sites in Porac, Pampanga and in Bamban, Tarlac, and a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga where at least P3 billion worth of shabu was found last September.

The Speaker was joined in the inspection by Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga, and the chairpersons of the different House committees: Laguna lawmaker Dan Fernandez (Public Order and Safety), Surigao del Norte legislator Robert Ace Barbers (Dangerous Drugs), Abang Lingkod party-list lawmaker Joseph Stephen “Caraps” Paduano (Public Accounts), Cavite lawmaker Antonio Ferrer (Games and Amusements), and Antipolo legislator Romeo Acop (Transportation).

Also present were Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo lawmaker Janette Garin, and Surigao del Sur legislator Johnny Ty Pimentel. 

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Alejandro Tengco earlier said that some 31,000 direct POGO employees and more than 9,000 workers in special business process outsourcing are likely to be displaced following President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.’s directive to ban POGOs within the next six months in his third State of the Nation Address last month. 

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, for his part, said that the POGO ban should not destroy CEZA operations, including its offshore gaming licensees.

“[The area managed by CEZA] is the anchor of the safety and national security of the country to protect it. When we do our things as legislators....I am leaving you, I might be dead tomorrow, I will not care, but you have to care about your children and grandchildren. [You must think] how to provide them with their livelihood and how to keep them safe from other countries. Every country around us is our enemy [or] potential enemy. No exceptions. And that's why I beg those who have in their minds to destroy CEZA, please stop it," Enrile, who turned 100 last February, said. — BM, GMA Integrated News