43 Chinese from raided Pasay Pogo hub deported

BLACKLISTED About five months after the raid on their workplace in Pasay City, 43 Chinese nationals, plus one Vietnamese, are brought to the airport for deportation on Thursday, banned from reentering the country for engaging in human trafficking activities and online scams while supposedly employed in an offshore gaming company. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Thursday deported 43 Chinese nationals who were found working for an establishment involved in human trafficking activities.

The group was sent back to their country on a Philippine Airlines flight to Shanghai at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1, the bureau said in a statement.

According to BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval, the deportation of another Vietnamese who is also part of the group is scheduled today.

The deportees were part of more than 100 foreigners earlier apprehended by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police Women and Children Protection Center during an October 2023 raid on a building housing an unlicensed Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) on F.B. Harrison Street, Pasay City.

In all, arrested in the raid were 180 Chinese nationals, 24 Vietnamese and five Malaysians.

‘Well-capitalized’

The Pogo hub was searched based on a warrant issued by the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 25 following reports of illegal activities such as sex trafficking and online scam operations.

“It’s a large-scale operation … very well-capitalized operation that makes money out of trafficking persons,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier said.

Based on Inquirer photos taken after the police operation, the raided building had bedrooms and a viewing room where sex clients could select women.

Gov’t paying bills

In an interview with dzRH, PAOCC Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said the foreign nationals arrested were detained in the Pogo establishment since October, with the government paying for their food, electricity and other bills.

The BI said the Chinese nationals’ involvement in trafficking activities violated the terms and conditions of their visas, and for that, they were “considered threats to the public interest.”

Their deportation put them on the immigration blacklist, barring them from reentering the country, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.

“We are working closely with other government agencies to rid the country of such undesirable aliens who abuse our hospitality and stay here doing their illegal activities,” he said.