Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian relayed that China has blacklisted the Philippines as a tourist destination for Chinese nationals due to crime and kidnapping incidents involving Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).
Zubiri said the ambassador met with the senators and discussed the decision.
“He said, ‘Mr. Senate President in our country, a lot of people have died, committed suicide, who are in jail now for theft and robbery because of payments that have [been] made to POGO operators operating in other countries particularly to the Philippines,” he said.
The senator said the envoy recalled that Chinese President Xi Jinping had asked the previous administration to shut down POGOs.
He added that such crimes were factors on why the number of Chinese tourists visiting the Philippines dropped even before the pandemic.
“Ambassador Huang said that the Philippines now is part of the black list of tourists sites because they do not know if the tourist going there will be operating POGO operations and they do not know if their Chinese nationals will be safe in illegal activities being done by the triad or kidnapped mistaken for POGO operators,” he continued. —Report from Eunice Samonte/KC-ag
