EO enough to enforce Pogo ban, says SolGen

FILE PHOTO: Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra. INQUIRER FILES

An executive order should be enough to implement President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to ban all Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) in the country, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said on Thursday.

“Since under the law, all gaming operations fall under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), which in turn reports directly to the Office of the President, an executive order or other administrative issuance is sufficient,” Guevarra told reporters.

READ: Marcos: ‘All Pogos are banned!’

According to him, the total ban on the operations of Pogos was a “matter of government policy,” adding that, “It is the President’s determination of what is good for the country after carefully weighing all competing interests.”

Guevarra made the remark after Mr. Marcos announced in his State of the Nation Address on July 22 that all Pogos in the country must cease operations by the end of the year.

The announcement was met with a standing ovation from senators and congressmen of the 19th Congress and widely lauded by society leaders.

Prompt action

In line with the President’s order, government agencies concerned announced the looming revocation of visas for Pogo workers and the denial of pending and new applications.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said that foreigners working in Pogos or internet gaming licensees (IGLs) must “wind down their affairs” over the next two months.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said they were expecting around 20,000 foreign workers to comply with the order even before their visas were revoked.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, who had repeatedly called for a ban on Pogos even before the President’s order, lauded the BI for its prompt action.

“The sooner they can leave, the better,” Villanueva said. “It’s important for BI and Pagcor to coordinate to ensure that all foreign Pogo workers who need to leave the country are all accounted for.”

The Office of the Solicitor General and BI are agencies attached to the Department of Justice, which earlier expressed its full support for the total Pogo ban.

No resurrection

The House of Representatives, which started investigating Pogos even before its third and last regular session, vowed to continue its probe and produce a comprehensive law to prevent their “resurrection.”

“I want all bases in the total Pogo ban covered in the proposed measure,” Speaker Martin Romualdez said the day after the President’s announcement.

“We have to ensure that Pogo operators will not just resort to guerrilla operators or go [undercover]. The law must be crafted with iron-clad provisions to prevent [the] resurrection of these criminal and illegal activities,” he added.

“This, however, will not stop the ongoing House investigation,” he said, adding that at least two bills and three resolutions had been filed with the House secretariat.

Fugitive foreigners

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, meanwhile, urged law enforcers to provide humanitarian treatment to foreign nationals working in Pogos and IGLs as they wind down operations.

“We must ensure humanitarian treatment toward foreign workers, especially those who may have been trafficked into these legal or illegal Pogos/IGLs,” she said.

But she also urged government agencies concerned to ensure that those working in illegal Pogos/IGLs leave the country as well.

“It seems that there are more illegal Pogo workers so this would be more challenging for our agencies to get them out of the country,” said Hontiveros.