Senators agree to consider bill declaring Pogos ‘illegal’ amid crimes

MANILA, Philippines — Amid the rise in “illicit activities” connected to the offshore gaming industry in the country, senators saw the need to consider crafting legislation that would declare Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) “illegal.”

It was Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon who broached the idea on Tuesday after Sen. Richard Gordon warned, in a privilege speech, of a “creeping invasion” with the emergence of Pogos and crimes linked to the industry, such as money-laundering, prostitution and trafficking.

READ: Gordon warns of ‘creeping invasion’ with rise of POGOs

“It’s maybe about time that we should examine this policy, we are a policy-making body. Should we continue with this policy of allowing overseas gaming operations in the country with all the illicit activities that comes with it?” Drilon said.

“I’m just saying that we should have all options on the table, including possible legislation which would declare this illegal. The theory of the Chinese government if it is illegal in my country, it should be illegal for my citizens to do the illegal thing outside of my borders,” he pointed out.

Gordon, who is set to lead a Senate probe on the rise of Chinese money brought into the Philippines, agreed with Drilon and said that “everything is on the table including eradicating Pogo entirely.”

But not before his investigation on issues hounding the Pogo industry, Gordon said.

“I’d like to see what are the syndicates behind this, I’d like to know how much taxes we’re collecting and I want to know who is not paying the taxes and who is not enforcing the law,” he added.

Drilon then said: “We should expose this and see exactly to what extent this is happening so that this can be the basis of a policy which we will adopt insofar as Pogo operations is concerned.”

“Once all of these are established…if we are convinced that indeed this is not good for our country, we should adopt a stronger policy on these insofar as their continued operations are concerned,” he added.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senators Risa Hontiveros, Joel Villanueva and Francis Pangilinan agreed that there was a need to craft a stronger policy on the operations of Pogos amid the proliferation of crimes linked to its operations.

Hontiveros and Villanueva, chairs of the Senate women committee and labor panel, respectively, opened separate investigations on policy issues concerning the offshore gaming industry.

“One good thing we saw in Senate was the synergy among different Senate committees looking into the policy issues of POGOs,” Hontiveros said, speaking partly in Filipino.

“This is creating some kind of possible momentum here inside the Senate. The minority leader mentioned the policy question of whether to continue or not to continue with POGO operations,” she added.

Pangilinan, meanwhile, pointed out that should the investigation be conducted on the different laws POGOs had supposedly violated, he believes “all the committees will be conducting hearings.”

He said POGOs violated the country’s laws on labor, tax, immigration, national security, and kidnapping, among others.

/atm