De Lima calls for a Senate probe of POGO activities

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima wants a Senate probe into the activities of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) to determine whether or not they should be allowed to do business here.

In a statement released Wednesday, De Lima said that she had filed Senate Resolution No. 440 calling for an investigation of the issue.

She said the rise in POGO activities during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic “merits a clear and unequivocal action from the government, including Congress.”

“There is a need to determine the resolve in which our law enforcement sector to implement our laws against POGOs,” she said.

“The Philippine National Police, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Immigration should report on the cases involving Pogos and how said cases are being dealt with in order to determine if our government is meeting the challenges posed by the POGOs against our rule of law,” she added.

De Lima said that the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and Department of Finance must present justification as to why POGOs should continue operations to run “in spite of their well-documented, repeated and continuous offenses against Philippine laws.”

Previously, the government allowed POGOs to partially resume operations, which were suspended when the entire Luzon was placed under an enhanced community quarantine to curb the spread of COVID-19.

However, the Bureau of Internal Revenue said that no POGO could continue running because not one of them had fully paid taxes.

Police had also conducted several raids on POGO sites, such as the one in a Makati condominium last May when they arrested 63 Chinese and 13 Filipino workers.

“The current administration’s kid-glove approach against POGO-related criminality has emboldened these POGOs to continue their activities unimpeded within the Philippines, with little to no regard for our laws nor our standards for public health and safety,” she said.

“Congress should now step up and re-evaluate our country’s policies concerning the regulation of Pogos and determine whether or not they should be permitted to legally operate in our country once and for all,” the senator added.

/atm