Sen. Win Gatchalian —Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — From one dubious Pogo to another.
Some of the Filipino workers originally from the Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) compound that was raided in Bamban, Tarlac province, in March were among those taken into custody when authorities swooped down on another online gambling hub in Porac, Pampanga, earlier this week, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said on Saturday.
READ: Pampanga Pogo linked to scams, trafficking; 186 rescued in raid
Guo connection
According to Gatchalian, the Filipinos were able to “escape” before law enforcement agents, led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), could enter the vast complex of Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Bamban on March 13.
READ: ‘Leakage’ suspected after many escaped Pogo raid
He said this bolstered suspicions that Zun Yuan may be connected with the operations of Lucky South 99, the Pogo firm that was raided in Porac on the night of June 4 for allegedly being used for human trafficking, and online scams.
The now controversial Bamban Mayor Alice Guo had admitted to being the previous owner of the 7.9-hectare property which she and her business partners in Baofu Land Development Inc.—three of them Chinese nationals who had been declared fugitives—had supposedly leased to Zun Yuan.
“Based on the initial information we gathered, those who escaped from Bamban were found to be working in Porac. They just transferred,” Gatchalian said in an interview on the radio program “Usapang Senado” on dwIZ.
“If you recall, not everyone was arrested in Bamban, particularly the locals. Some of them were in Porac. They provided the information about the possibility that the Pogo in Bamban is connected with the Pogo in Porac,” added.
The senator noted that the two facilities, though in two different provinces, were just several kilometers apart. “They are just near each other so it’s really possible that these Pogos are connected.”
Preferred airport
Individuals behind Pogo facilities in Central Luzon and other nearby areas had been using Clark International Airport at Clark Freeport in Pampanga as their preferred “exit and entry point,” he said.
Huang Zhiyang, a Chinese fugitive who was identified as one of Guo’s business associates in Baofu, had been traveling in and out of the Philippines through the Clark airport, Gatchalian said, and even the mayor’s Chinese father, Jian Zhong Guo, had also been using the same airport in his travels abroad.
“The airport in Clark is very convenient (for) going in and out (of the Philippines), but it is also being used by Pogo syndicates as a point of entry and exit,” Gatchalian said. “And if we look at it, the Pogos that were raided lately were just around the Clark airport. In my opinion, this airport is being used by the (criminal) elements in setting up Pogos.”