Chinese scams traced to raided Pogo firm in Las Piñas
At least seven foreign fugitives were among the workers rescued by authorities from human trafficking activities of a registered Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) service provider in Las Piñas City as their operation reached its second week.
Philippine National Police spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo on Thursday said that the seven fugitives—four Chinese and three Taiwanese nationals—were turned over to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for deportation to their respective countries.
The Chinese fugitives are wanted for fraud, theft and drug trafficking charges, while the Taiwanese criminals were involved with fraud, she said.
Fajardo said the Chinese Embassy also sought the PNP’s help to find out whether there were other criminals working for Xinchuang Network Technology Inc., which is the subject of five warrants to search, seize and examine data and two search warrants issued by Las Piñas Regional Trial Court for violating the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
“Based on initial investigation, it appears that the four Chinese fugitives are involved in scams which had victimized many of their compatriots in China and the IP address they [were] using [was] traced to the company we raided,” she told reporters in Camp Crame.
“And based on initial documentation on the computer data and equipment we seized, there are indications that aside from Pogo operations, the rescued trafficked individuals were also employed to commit different kinds of scam works,” Fajardo added.
Workers rescued
According to Fajardo, there is “no definite timeline” on how long the operation will continue, as PNP units are still implementing the warrants issued by the court against Xinchuang—nine days after it started the raid in the Pogo company’s self-contained hub on Alabang Zapote Road in Barangay Almanza Uno on June 27.
A total of 2,773 workers from Xinchuang were rescued, composed of 1,534 Filipinos and 1,239 foreign workers from various countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Fajardo said all of the Filipinos have been processed and cleared to leave the compound, while 758 have been cleared by the BI as of 2 a.m. on Thursday.
The remaining were still undergoing profiling, which involved the process of getting their biometrics and cross-matching it with the data with BI to check if they entered the country legally and if they were wanted in their home countries.
Foreigners who were found with valid travel and work documents would be turned over to their respective embassies, while those who came here illegally would be booked for deportation procedures.
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