Pogo ban closely watched; Pagcor warned

Composite image of Pogo workers. —INQUIRER file and stock photos

MANILA, Philippines — Two weeks after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban on all Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), giving them till the year-end to wind down their affairs, concerns remain over such companies being given loopholes or new disguises just to circumvent the prohibition.

In Congress, the countdown to the Pogo deadline is expected to be marked by continued scrutiny of the industry, particularly its use as a front for organized crime involving Chinese nationals, including cases from the Duterte administration.

At the Senate, Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday warned the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) against attempts to “reinterpret” the President’s order as articulated in his third State of the Nation Address on July 22.

READ: Mayors given list of 402 illegal Pogos to shut down

“Anything that is being appealed for during this time and those whose operations are being winded down, I would say, in principle, are covered by that Pogo ban of the President,” said Hontiveros, one of the lawmakers who had built a case against Pogos by initiating a Senate inquiry into their operations.

“There should be no attempt to reinterpret the President’s very clear directive,” she said in a TV interview.

About those 12 SBPOs

Hontiveros was reacting to a statement from Pagcor Chair Alejandro Tengco, who said there were currently 12 special business process outsourcing (SBPO) companies servicing foreign gaming entities and that they should be allowed to continue operations.

Tengco earlier said some 10,000 Filipinos were employed by these SBPOs and that Pagcor had received applications from six more companies.

He again mentioned the SBPOs at a House budget hearing on Tuesday.

Pagcor, he said, is still studying how to spare these 12 special BPOs, which are not connected to Pogos but serve offshore gaming taking place in other countries.

Explaining SBPOs’ functions, he said: “There is no bettor being taken by these companies. These are the same as normal BPOs in the country… basically they’re like backroom operations for gaming companies abroad and Manila is the one that answers questions [from gamers] like ‘Why didn’t my bet money go through?’ Stuff like that.’’

“It would be a big thing if we could spare them as it would mean 10,000 jobs saved,” Tengco told members of the House committee on appropriations. “Mr. Marcos told us to carefully study that.”

‘Unequivocal’

But Hontiveros reminded Tengco of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra’s earlier statement that Marcos’ instruction to ban Pogos was “unequivocal.”

She recalled that during a Senate hearing on July 29, a week after the Sona, the Pagcor chair actually echoed Guevarra’s view.

“It’s a good thing Tengco did not mention (sparing the SBPOs) during our hearing because I would have also taken issue with that,” Hontiveros said.

All Pogos should cease to exist by year’s end, and Pagcor can expedite the process by revoking even the grant to 43 facilities now known as “internet gaming licensees” (IGLs), she added.

There is also “no need to wait for a law to be passed against Pogos,” she said. “Pagcor may just cancel the licenses it issued without exception. That should fulfill the President’s order.”

IGLs

Facing House members on Tuesday, Tengco said he was focused on winding down the operations of the 42 IGLs.

He recalled that upon assuming the Pagcor chairmanship in 2022, he tried to overhaul the industry by coming up with new regulatory standards for offshore gaming and rebranding Pogos as IGLs.

This resulted in more than 290 Pogos losing their licenses, he stressed.

As of Aug. 6, he said, there were only 42 “legal Pogos” left “and it is of my belief that up to the time that the President announced the ban, [they] were doing legitimate business, and it was giving the government coffers revenue and providing employment to hundreds of thousands of people, indirectly or directly.”

These companies, he said, were expected to contribute some P6 billion to government coffers, out of the total revenue of P101 billion that Pagcor expects in 2024. The projection also includes P42 billion expected from integrated resorts and P45 billion from electronic gaming.

“But the mandate today, the instruction of the President, is to wind down the operations for all until the end of the year,” he said.

Better version?

“But who knows, maybe later on, we can study and see if it’s possible to have a sort of upgraded version,” he added.

Tengco’s statement on the possible future for Pogos was in response to a question from Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, who asked whether it was “within Pagcor’s mandate to create a better version of Pogo that is [a] level up and, taking off from lessons from our experience, come up with a better version that could help the economy.”

“I would encourage you to do that because I think this is a golden opportunity for the Philippines,” Daza said. “But the industry, as we know for many reasons, just gave it a bad name.”

Tengco said Pagcor would have a “master plan” for the Pogo closures ready by September.

Consolidated House probe

Also at the House, a proposal was made to form a four-committee body that would consolidate all ongoing inquiries into Pogos.

At present, three separate House investigations on the matter are ongoing, led by the committee on dangerous drugs, on public order and safety, and on human rights.

In a privilege speech on Monday, Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales pushed for the consolidation, noting that the inquiries had been tackling “issues that are interwoven, entailing scrutiny into intricate details…[and] have shown an overlap or commonalities on individuals or resource persons that may be invited in the hearings.”

Gonzales, who is also the House senior deputy speaker, added: “A joint investigation will enable us to conduct a more inclusive and thorough examination of these interlocking issues,” the House leader said.

In support of Gonzales’ proposal, Manila Rep. Joel Chua and Quezon City Rep. Patrick Michael Vargas said that in conducting separate inquiries, one committee might hesitate to tackle certain issues for fear of encroaching on another panel’s area of concern.

They said the “interwoven and intricate issues” being looked into by the concerned House committees warrant a joint investigation.