Senator to Pagcor chief: Spare us the suspense

Sherwin Gatchalian—Senate SMU                                                                                Alejandro Tengco—Pagcor Facebook page

BALER, AURORA, Philippines — The state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) may just be trying to deflect the heat after it belatedly claimed that a former Cabinet official had acted as a conduit of some Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) involved in criminal activities, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said on Monday.

Nonetheless, Gatchalian said he had initiated his own investigation to check the allegations of Pagcor chair Alejandro Tengco, who has opposed the calls to pull the plug on all Pogo companies in the country.

He said Tengco should have named the former high-ranking government official in the previous hearings presided over by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality.

READ: Pagcor: Ex-Cabinet official lobbied for raided Pogos

“This just proves that they (Pogos) have connections with those occupying high posts in the government,” Gatchalian said in an interview after attending an event in this town.

“Their connections really reach the different agencies of our government, including those in the Cabinet. [Tengco] should just give us the name and spare us [the] suspense,” he added.

Asked if Pagcor was just diverting attention away from its complicity in Pogo-related crimes, he said: “That’s also possible.”

“But Pagcor’s accountability remains. If you remember, those [Pogos] that were raided were previously approved [by Pagcor]. So we will [still] hold them to account,” the senator noted.

Gatchalian, who has joined Hontiveros and other senators in calling for a total ban on Pogos, said the state gaming regulator should stop arguing that the ban should only cover illegal Pogos.

Ineffective monitoring

As shown in the raids conducted by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), the senator said several licensed online gambling facilities were also used by syndicates behind scams, kidnapping, torture, human trafficking and other heinous crimes.

According to Gatchalian, the gaming licenses that Pagcor granted to legal Pogos paved the way for syndicates to come into the country.

“Plus, we all saw that Pagcor has been very ineffective in monitoring those operating Pogos,” he stressed.

“[Tengco] should also disclose what he knows, not just the name, but the documents linking this person to Pogos, so that it will not just be hearsay or his personal opinion,” he added.

In a statement on Saturday, Tengco said the unnamed former Cabinet official had lobbied for the issuance of gaming licenses for Pogos that authorities recently raided.

Two of the more prominent Pogos that were closed by PAOCC this year were Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Bamban, Tarlac, and Lucky South 99 Corp. in Porac, Pampanga. (See related story on this page.)

Tengco said he would disclose the name of the former Cabinet official in the proper forum, adding: “We are also ready to reveal the roles of other controversial individuals behind these criminal Pogo enterprises.”

Asean visa-free entry

At the House of Representatives, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers on Monday called on Pagcor to publicly name all licensed and unlicensed Pogos, which he described as “one-stop shops of criminal activities.”

In a statement, he also expressed alarm over a supposed trend where Chinese Pogo workers were being replaced with Southeast Asian employees. Citizens of member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are allowed visa-free entry to the Philippines.

Barbers claimed that nationals from Asean countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, were replacing Chinese workers and warned the Bureau of Immigration (BI) against giving them working visas in exchange for bribe money.

“We have seen the unabated influx of Chinese who were given student and retiree visas by the BI and the Philippine Retirement Authority. We are not done yet with our investigations so I am warning these agencies not to extend working visas to these new arrivals who are being used to replace Chinese employees in the Pogos,” he said.

He extended his warning to Pagcor, vowing to hold agency officials accountable once it is proven that Pogos raided for criminal activities were licensed or that licensed Pogos protected or sponsored by influential personalities were made havens of criminal activities.

“We will make sure that those [who are] negligent, incompetent, and corrupt will be punished,” he stressed.