Long held suspicions that Philippine Overseas Gaming Operators (POGOs) are serving as fronts for China to bring into the country moles from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) may have some basis in fact.
This, after uniforms of PLA officers were discovered among the effects of supposed employees of a POGO in Porac, Pampanga which was raided by authorities last week.
The raiders found alleged Chinese military uniforms which bore designs linked to the PLA of the Chinese Communist Party. There were also uniforms believed to be of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (CAPF).
The initial raid was conducted at the Lucky South 99 Outsourcing, Inc. in the Central Luzon province, with a follow-up operation conducted on a 10-hectare property called Thai Court in Sitio Pulung Maba, Barangay Sta Cruz, also in Porac.
Six sets of uniforms with symbols and distinguishing marks of the PLA and CAPF, medals, and combat boots were among the items found, along with passports of the supposed employees of the POGO.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) which took part in the raid did not want to push the panic button yet, saying there could have been a “benign” reason for the presence of the military paraphernalia.
Search operations also found such items as handcuffs, pellet guns, baseball bats, electric rods, ID cards, cash, jewelry, and methamphetamine hydrochloride AKA shabu or poor man’s cocaine.
The PAOCC spokesman said Lucky 99 was by far the worst and most prolific among online gaming operators in terms of kidnapping, harassment, torture, and other crimes.
Now called Internet Gaming Licensees or IGLs, a number of POGOs are registered as BPO or business process outsourcing companies, which are legal and now employ millions of Filipinos.
They were thus able to avoid registering with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), which regulates casinos.
Pagcor CEO Alejandro Tengco said the alien crime syndicates were also posing as legitimate and licensed POGOs and were a significant threat to national security.
Reports of human trafficking, torture, and illegal detention resulted in recent raids on POGOs, including Smart Web Technology Corp. in Pasay City, and more recently Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Bamban, Tarlac. The latter is a POGO in a town where mayor Alice Guo had been in the news because of strong suspicions that she is not a Philippine citizen but a Chinese national.
In September, 2022, Lucky South 99 was ordered shut down by Interior Sec. Benjamin Abalos, who led a raiding team that discovered more than 40 Chinese, who claimed they had been kidnapped and forced to work for the POGO.
How and why the illegitimate company was able to resume operations is not clear.
Last week, the People’s Republic of China reiterated its request that the Philippines shut down all POGO operations, which they said was not allowed in Mainland China.
There has been a growing clamor to shut down all POGOs in Congress but this has met with opposition from some government agencies, which say that legitimate POGOs should be allowed to continue operating because of its huge contributions to the nation’s coffers.
“We should not blame and demonize our licensees gaming operators because these are closely monitored by Pagcor. Our licensees pay taxes, and they help provide legitimate jobs and livelihood to a lot of people,” said Tengco.
It can also be noted that at the start of the Marcos administration, when calls for the closure of all POGOs first came out, one of the country’s largest real estate bodies reminded the government that all the gaming companies were renting buildings and offices owned by Filipino nationals and companies.
