INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — A rescued Filipino in Myanmar was among the 650 workers found by authorities in a suspected scams hub in Pasay City, senators learned on Wednesday.
Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) confirmed during a Senate hearing the raid in the establishment registered under Rivendell Corporation.
Ty said the firm was supposed to be a registered service provider but most of the rooms in the four-floor establishment were operating cyber scams. Only a few rooms, he said, were used for gambling.
“Suspetsa namin dito tuwing may inspection, ito ang pinapaharap nila. This is just a very small part of the operation,” he pointed out during the hearing in the Senate.
The hearing is led by opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros as head of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality.
IACAT also observed that the majority of the workers at the establishment were Filipinos.
Of the 650 employees, Ty said around 180 are foreign nationals, and most are Chinese.
The increasing number of Filipino workers in the scam hub, he said, was also noted in a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) earlier raided in Las Piñas.
“Observation namin dyan mukhang nag-backtrack na yung mga Pogo,” Ty said.
(Based on our observation, the Pogos have apparently backtracked.)
Because of the government’s unrelenting drive against human trafficking, Ty said illegal Pogo firms are now more careful, reducing their foreign workers and avoiding any badges that would link them to human trafficking by employing Filipinos.
“At isa pang napakalungkot na nalaman namin kagabi, meron kaming isang natagpuan na ne-rescue nating Filipino sa Mayanmar, nandun sya sa Pogo na yun sa Pasay,” he said.
(And one more unfortunate thing we learned last night, we found one of the Filipinos we rescued in Myanmar, and he was there at that Pogo in Pasay.)
Ty said IACAT now has a list of Filipinos they rescued from human trafficking, which they could use as a reference in future operations.
Their investigation, he said, would now focus on these rescued Filipinos who may end up working in illegal Pogo firms.