Locsin: Pogos paid taxes ‘under the table’

“The tax-evading Pogos did pay out as you must suspect, but under the table which puzzled them,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted on Thursday, referring to Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), which have threatened to leave the country because of stringent tax measures.

The Pogos reportedly owe the government some P50 billion in taxes. But in his tweet, Locsin said “a collector whose affiliation to any department was kept a mystery would turn up himself” to pick up the money.

He did not identify the collector.

The foreign affair official said China, where gambling is illegal, “will be ecstatic” by the Pogos’ move to exit the Philippines. —Dona Z. Pazzibugan