Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The head of the House of Representatives’ quad committee on Friday pressed the need for a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act, citing information uncovered by the chamber’s super panel showing activities of a massive criminal enterprise emanating from Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said the disclosure made by Cassandra Li Ong that her boss at Whirlwind Corp., Duanren Wu, worked as a policeman only confirmed the information he received that a China-based crime syndicate was employing sacked rogue Chinese cops in illegal Pogo operations.
The Barbers-led House panel on dangerous drugs is part of the quad committee that is looking into the link of Pogo with extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the war on drugs, the narcotics trade and other syndicated crime. The other quad committee members are the panels on public order and safety, on public accounts and on human rights.
Barbers stressed the quad committee hearings continue to unravel various racketeering schemes of a China-based organized crime syndicate that poured dirty money into the Philippines to set up illegal Pogos that hosted criminal activities such as kidnapping, torture, murder, online scams, human trafficking and prostitution.
Based on the testimony of witnesses in the quad committee, he observed an alleged diversion of Pogo dirty funds to finance and reward Philippine National Police personnel involved in EJKs under the Duterte administration’s drug war.
Barbers said the hearings were pointing the quad committee to a “direction that tells us there is still so much more to uncover in the mystery behind the illegal Pogos in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga, or even beyond.”
Not a legal entity
The lawmaker highlighted the need to draft an all-encompassing law, like the United States’ Rico Act, against known or would-be criminal enterprises in the country.
According to Barbers, the US Rico Act made it illegal to acquire, operate, or receive income from an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. He explained the law’s underlying tenet is to prove and prohibit a pattern of crimes conducted through an “enterprise,” which the statute defines as “any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.
Barbers pointed out in a news briefing on Friday that it was suspicious how Wu, a resigned policeman, could have billions of pesos to buy huge parcels of land and construct buildings as well as enter into transactions with Pogos through Whirlwind Corp.
“We all know that a policeman in China wouldn’t be paid much because the peace and order situation there isn’t bad. We all know they are under a communist regime. So their peace and order in the community isn’t terrible,” he said.