POGO bosses still in PH amid worker deportations, Gatchalian says

Leaders of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) are still in the country and continue to conduct illegal activities such as kidnapping seven months since a total ban was ordered, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said over the weekend.

According to Gatchalian, he was informed that leaders of POGO hubs remain in the country and continue to do “pocket scams” and kidnap one another, along with a child that was recently taken in connection with POGO activities.

“‘Yung iba dito ay pumasok sila dito gamit ‘yung kanilang working visa, ‘yung iba ay nagtatago. ‘Yung mga nananatili dito, ito ‘yung ayaw bumalik ng China kasi mahigpit ang China,” he said in an interview on Super Radyo DZBB on Sunday.

(Some of them entered the country using their working visa, others are in hiding. Those that remain here are those who do not want to return to China because of strict regulations.)

This comes after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July 2024, ordered the ban on all POGOs by the end of 2024, citing the sector’s “grave abuse” and “disrespect” to the country’s system and laws.

Data released by Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC) show that POGOs left 274,000 square meters of office space in the past year.

Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) director Winston Casio, however, said that latest data from government agencies indicate that there are still some 10,650 POGO-related foreign nationals that are still in the country after deporting some 2,000 workers.

“We’ve been conducting almost nonstop mga rescue, mga raids since February 13, so in the next few weeks, probably, we’ll be able to identify other members ng mga Chinese kidnapping syndicates na mga ito,” he said in Katrina Son's report on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

“Sa tulong ng NBI [National Bureau of Immigration] at tsaka ng PNP [Philippine National Police], I'm sure maneu-neutralize ang mga ito [they will be neutralized],” he added.  — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA Integrated News