(Photo from Sta. Rosa City Rep. Dan S. Fernandez’s official Facebook page)
BACOLOR, Pampanga — The House of Representatives committee hearings on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) and crimes linked to them are necessary because the ills that developed during the past administration are still felt up to the present.
Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez made this statement on Friday in his speech at the first hearing of the joint committees.
Fernandez said the problems up for discussion — illegal activities inside Pogo hubs, foreigners owning land, the proliferation of illegal drugs, public officials being bribed, and rights violations — started under the term of then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
According to Fernandez, head of the House committee on public order and safety, all of these moves were part of a plan to invade the Philippines without resorting to armed conflict.
“Yes, we linked these pieces of evidence together because these point to the true goal of foreigners — to occupy our land using different aspects of our society and colonize us through peaceful means,” the lawmaker said.
“Based on our investigation, they have already started owning our lands. Local corporations are under foreigners directly or indirectly. Different parts of the government were invaded. Officials are bribed, and the country is filled with drugs and other gambling schemes,” Fernandez observed.
“There are also police officers killing people, doing buy-bust operations wrongly just to implement their quota system — things that happened and were implemented during the past administration, and until now, affects the country,” he asserted.
“All of these were done for us to cower in fear and for our morale to weaken, and eventually surrender to foreigners’ strategic locations in our country,” he pointed out.
In a video clip he presented before his speech, Fernandez showed Duterte saying that Pogos are clean, even assuring “under my oath of office as president of this republic, as elected by you – these Pogos are clean.”
The presentation then shifted to the different issues that affected Pogos — sex trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, torture, and even extrajudicial killings.
Fernandez noted that Filipinos are starting to realize the truth now.
“Filipinos have started to wake up. Now, they are realizing the whole truth and understand the twisted policies that have been implemented for a long time,” he said.
House commitment
Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr., who was present in the hearing, said that the creation of the investigating committees shows the commitment of the House to addressing the ills in society.
Gonzales, who represents Pampanga’s third district, said the hearings were also a testament that government officials would not allow foreign entities to ruin the province’s success stories.
“We will not let this redemption story go in vain. We have sacrificed too much for our municipalities (only) to be buried yet again – this time, due to the entry of foreign entities with malign intentions,” he said.
House committee on dangerous drugs chairperson and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said the first hearing would take place in Pampanga as several issues started in the province.
For example, Barbers’ panel probed a controlled delivery operation where illegal drugs were traced from the Port of Subic to a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga.
READ: P3.6-B worth of shabu seized in Pampanga warehouse
Eventually, the committee discovered that the warehouse was under Empire 999 Realty Corp., controlled by a certain Willie Ong, who Barbers and other panel members believe, is a Chinese illegally acquiring land in Pampanga.
READ: Owner of warehouse storing drugs used fake identity, says Barbers
READ: House quad-committee hearing to start in Pampanga
Fernandez’s committee, meanwhile, covered issues revolving around a Pogo hub in Porac — one of the two gaming sites in Central Luzon that was raided for human trafficking allegations.