By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan | Philippine News Agency
The country’s biggest Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) compound, located in the province of Cavite, was shut down Tuesday.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) Executive Director Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) Chairperson Alejandro Tengco, and Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil led the formal closure of the POGO compound located at the former Island Cove resort in Kawit town.
The Remulla family sold the resort to a real estate developer in 2017.
The facility then started operations as a POGO hub in 2019.
Remulla certified the shutdown of the facility after the local government confirmed that it ceased operations on Nov. 30.
“As promised, we visited the area by December to see that everything is closed. We will follow the President’s (Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.) directive that all POGOs must be closed. Per the local government unit administrator, they inspected the facility in the last week of November and there are no more operations here,” Remulla told reporters during the ceremonial closure of the POGO compound.
Remulla said there is no more power supply in the buildings nor signs of business activities since November.
The POGO facility on the 33-hectare property is the biggest in the country, with 30,000 employees, half of whom were Filipinos.
The compound consists of 57 buildings, including employee dormitories, gaming hubs, cafés, groceries, clinics, restaurants, spas, and beauty salons.
“The DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) and DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) are setting up job fairs for displaced Filipino workers so they can find new jobs. As for foreign workers, I think all of them have been repatriated as their work visas were downgraded to tourist so they cannot work here,” he added.
Cruz said they have monitored around 100 guerilla POGO operations throughout the country.
“There are a lot of red flags. There are a lot of indicators pointing to areas that still have POGO operations. We have coordinated with LGUs (local government units) and we are working with the PNP to find them,” he added.
He said the PNP and PAGCOR would mount inspections of special class business process outsourcing (BPO) facilities to ensure that no POGO hubs are concealing operations.
“We will be utilizing the barangays because most likely, they are the ones that can spot these. There are a lot of indicators. For instance, if a house’s lights are open 24 hours a day, even at night, and then there is a presence of foreign nationals. They also frequently order food via delivery services and then you would see huge piles of trash there. They also frequently avail of additional internet connections. These are some red flags to watch out for,” he added.
Remulla, meanwhile, again denied the involvement of his family in the POGO facility’s operations.
He said neither of his brothers, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and former television reporter and now PAGCOR Director Gilbert Remulla, approved the POGO hub’s operations.
Remulla was Cavite governor from 2010 to 2016 and from 2019 until his appointment to the DILG post in October this year.
All POGO hubs shut down
Tengco said all POGO hubs in the country are now closed.
While he admitted that the total POGO ban would mean P20 billion in lost revenues for the government, Tengco is optimistic that the issuance of new gaming licenses will cover such losses.
Marbil, meanwhile, assured an intensified crackdown against guerrilla POGO operations.
“We have the Task Force Skimmer composed of the Anti-Cybercrime Group and we have reports where we are able to monitor their operations, how many people they have and we are also keeping a close watch on some foreigners,” the PNP chief said.
POGOs in the country must cease operations by Dec. 31, under Executive Order (EO) 74 signed by Marcos in November.
The EO orders a total ban on Philippine offshore gaming, Internet gaming, and other offshore gaming operations in the country.