DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed syndicated estafa and online illegal gambling cases against 58 workers of the newly-discovered Philippine Online Gaming Operations (Pogo) in Panabo city of Davao del Norte.
Agent Ely Leano, spokesperson of the NBI in Southeastern Mindanao Regional Office (Semro), said that the mostly foreign workers they rescued in the newly discovered Pogo in Panabo City underwent inquest proceedings in the Panabo Hall of Justice on Monday, December 9, and that the NBI was in the process of applying for cyber warrant to allow them to look into the files of the computers found in the building.
NBI agents were supposed to rescue a Malaysian national “illegally held” inside the warehouse at Purok 6, Manay village of the city at the dawn hours of Friday, December 6, but instead of finding the Malaysian, they found a suspected Pogo operation with 55 Chinese, three Malaysians and a Filipina worker.
Leano, however, said that they still had to establish the owner of the Pogo and the possible involvement of local officials in their operation. “They could not possibly operate it without the consent or protection of local officials,” he told the Inquirer by phone.
Earlier, Panabo officials lauded the NBI’s swift action, some of them even called the quad committee of the House of Representatives (HR) to include in their investigation the recently-discovered Pogo.
Panabo City Vice Mayor Gregorio “Banjong” Dujali III filed a resolution before the city council asking the quad committee in the Lower House to investigate POGO in his city.
Mayor Jose Relampagos lauded the NBI’s quick action against the suspected operators who had been running the illegal operation for about four months, he said in a statement.