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MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) is aiming to deport at least 2,000 Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo) workers by mid-October, its spokesperson said on Monday.
Earlier, the DOJ announced that its summary deportations of Pogo workers would begin by the first week of October.
DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano said that about 40,000 Pogo workers or Chinese nationals are still in the country despite having the licenses of 175 Pogos terminated.
“Kagaya po ng sinabi ni Secretary [Jesus Crispin] Remulla, hindi naman agad-agad hulihin lahat all at once. Kailangan po natin gumawa ng strategy para po i-deport itong mga 40,000 batch by batch,” Clavano said in a Laging Handa public briefing.
(Like what Secretary Remulla said, we will not get them all at once. We need to make a strategy to deport these 40,000 workers by batch.)
“Ang direction po ni Secretary Remulla ay within the first week of October, magsisimula na po ang panghuhuli ng mga Pogo employees na ito, and hopefully by mid-October, makapag-deport na po tayo ng about 2,000 to 3,000 employees,” he added, noting that deportations will continue until December.
(As per the direction of Secretary Remulla, the arrest of Pogo employees will start in the first week of October, and hopefully, by mid-October, we could deport about 2,000 to 3,000 employees.)
To date, there are 281 Pogo workers under the custody of the government.
For 2022, the projected income from Pogos is P32 billion but only P3 billion has been collected so far.
The low revenue prompted some senators to weigh whether the social costs of Pogos in the country are worthwhile especially now that there is an alleged influx of abduction cases linked to the industry.
—with reports from Irish Lorraine Perez, INQUIRER.net trainee