President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. did not mention in his recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) that a number of POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) were able to renew their licenses to operate, albeit under a new name.
They’re now called Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs) which critics say is the same dog with a different collar. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has already licensed 43 of them and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said this was the government’s way of skirting the POGO ban.
Unless Pagcor complies with Marcos’s order to shut down all POGOs in the country, IGLs included, Pimentel said he would push for the abolition of the agency that oversees all gaming and casino operations.
“Just a reminder to Pagcor: Follow President Marcos’s instructions to the letter,” Pimentel said in radio interview.
While there have been widespread calls to shut down all POGOs, it is no secret that the industry also has powerful backers, including politicians as well as the real estate industry, which has provided the office buildings and housing rentals.
The Philippine Stock Exchange saw a drop in values of listed real estate companies in the wake of the President’s announcement during his recent SONA that all POGOs should be closed by the end of the year.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) also warned of “massive” job losses in the event of the sudden and haphazard closure of POGOs.
Losses would also be incurred by the food services, administrative support, and transport service sectors, said the PCCI, although the Chamber said it supports the President’s order stopping all POGO operations.
Said Pimentel to Pagcor: “The Senate might repeal the presidential decree that created you if you will countermand the instruction of your principal, the President, by hiding behind the new initials you invented.”
The Senator said he caught wind of a supposed plan by Pagcor to claim that the President’s order only covered POGOs and not IGLs.
Pimentel warned that Pagcor would muddle the issue “because they changed the name of POGO to IGL.”
“Don’t do that,” said Pimentel, “because we will really get mad at you and we will not stop from investigating you.”
Immediately after the president’s SONA, Pagcor chief Alejandro Tengco told the House of Representatives that as far as he was concerned, the President’s order also covered the 43 registered IGLs.
Tengco stated that while the illegal POGOs were not within his jurisdiction, the 43 IGLs were, and they would all be shut down by yearend.
It can be noted that some POGOs have been able to register not as gaming companies but as business process outsourcing firms, otherwise known as call centers.
Still others did not register at all, except in the cities and towns where they operated as local businesses requiring only an inexpensive mayor’s permit to do business.
In the past several months, authorities have raided two large POGOs operating in huge compounds in Tarlac and Pampanga provinces. Both employed tens of thousands of mostly Chinese workers, who did not have legitimate work permits.
They were determined to have procured fake Immigration permits, issued in Davao.
In a related development, Pagcor denied issuing a document calling for all POGOs to close down as early as next month.
Pagcor said a fake memo was circulating ordering some local government units in Metro Manila to terminate POGO operations by the first week of August.
“The President’s order is very clear. We have until the end of the year to wind down POGO operations, and we will follow that,” said Jessa Fernandez, Pagcor offshore gaming licensing department head.
