NBI raids suspected POGO hub in Mindoro

MANILA, Philippines — National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operatives raided last Saturday a suspected online gaming hub at a resort in Puerta Galera, Oriental Mindoro and arrested its owner, a Chinese national.

With a search warrant issued by Judge Josephine Caranzo of Calapan City Regional Trial Court Branch 39, authorities swooped down on Puerto Galera Seaview Resort in Barangay Sinandingan where they found around 40 Chinese as well as gambling equipment and paraphernalia.

NBI-MIMAROPA director Gelacio Bongngat said they found the Chinese hiding inside some of the rooms at the resort. Arrested was resort owner Stefan Cheng. The NBI raiders checked the passport details of the other Chinese and later let them go, as they were not found gambling. Cheng is facing charges for violating Presidential Decree 1602, or the law against illegal gambling.

“When we entered the rooms, we found baccarat tables, mahjong tables and other gambling paraphernalia,” Bongngat said.

He said their informant described the place as noisy every night, with many people gambling inside.

The NBI also said laptops found in the premises were not confiscated because they were not part of the search warrant. Authorities said they would deepen their investigation and, if necessary, apply for another search warrant so they could gather more information to prove that there is Philippine online gaming operator (POGO) at the resort.

Mayor Rocky Ilagan denounced the raid, insisting that the resort was not involved in POGO activities. He stressed he would not allow POGO operations in Puerto Galera.

Slay plot vs Gatchalian

Meanwhile, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has requested the Pasay City Police to investigate an alleged P10-million assassination plot against him and Sen. Risa Hontiveros that he said might be linked to their ongoing probe on illegal POGOs and the involvement of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.

A 22-minute vlog on YouTube on July 13 under the name Pinas Insider supposedly carried the death threats.

“I am writing to formally report an incident involving threats made against my life. These threats appear to be a consequence of my active participation investigation on the Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) connected to mayor Alice Guo of Bamban and the Guo family,” Gatchalian said in a letter addressed to Maj. Paul Benjamin Mandane, Pasay City Police, CCP sub-station commander.

“The creation and online dissemination of this video has caused me substantial concern for my security, as well as the safety of those around me, particularly my family and staff,” he said.

“In light of these serious threats, I formally request that the Pasay City police initiate a police report on this matter and conduct a thorough investigation. I urge you to take swift action to ensure the safety of myself and those associated with me,” he pointed out.

In a related development, Benedikt Hofmann, deputy regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), reported seeing with his own eyes the torture rooms at the Bamban, Tarlac POGO hub.

Hofmann said he was amazed by the scale and sophistication of the compound, which he claimed does not look very different from a well-established tech company.

“In the midst is one building that housed the gambling operation, which had been formally registered with the government and inspected by a regulator. But, what’s not visible to that regulator, at least on paper, are the buildings that are in between,” Hofmann said.

The other surprising aspect, he said, is the contrast between the lives of the people who were forced, often against their will, to live and work in those buildings and the sheer scale of wealth of the people in charge of the compound.

People did not have to leave and could stay for months as all their daily necessities were met, he said. There were restaurants, dormitories, barbershops, medical clinic, massage spa, gambling room and a VIP karaoke bar for senior managers, where they could drink, sing and socialize in private rooms, he reported.

Hofmann and UN News’ Daniel Dickinson also found a torture room with handcuffs and bloodstains on the walls, where people were taken for brutal punishment when they did not meet their quotas.

“However, even if they wanted to leave, they could not, as we’ve heard from people who were rescued from these centers. Some have been tortured and been subjected to unimaginable violence on a daily basis as punishment for wanting to leave or for failing to reach their daily quota in terms of money scammed from victims,” Hofmann said. “There’s a huge amount of human suffering in this compound,” he said.

Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission spokesman Winston Casio told UNODC officials that they were able to rescue around 680 people in the Bamban scam farm, but believed that a number of managers escaped after they were tipped off.

“These are huge operations. People are not allowed to leave. They are held against their will and forced to commit scams and fraud,” Casio said.

“Women are trafficked as sex slaves, and the managers in one farm had what they called ‘the aquarium’ where women were forcibly put on display and then chosen by the men to perform sex,” he said.

POGOS flourished during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, whose presidency was marked by his close ties to China.

POGO playground

At a Senate hearing yesterday, PAOCC Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said the Philippines became a safe haven for POGOs involved in illegal activities like scams and human trafficking.

“They saw the Philippines as their playground to do their scamming activities while continuing to operate their ‘legal’ activities,” Cruz said.

Among the human trafficking victims rescued during raids were fugitives with standing warrants in their home countries, Cruz said.

Some suspects were caught with Philippine IDs, passports, even PhilHealth cards, which they fraudulently obtained with fake birth certificates, he added.

POGOs have also hired former military and police officers from other countries to serve as their “enforcers” to commit murder, torture, kidnapping, Cruz said.

“They have their own rules. They created their own laws in these POGO hubs. This is their playground. They can do whatever they want,” Cruz said.

Illegal POGOs continue to proliferate because of the failure to crack down on pre-registered SIM cards used by syndicates in scamming people, he added.

“Unless we can solve the problem of pre-registered SIM cards, the POGO problem will persist. They will always hide behind fake identities in their scamming operations,” Cruz said. — Cecille Suerte Felipe, Pia Lee-Brago, Marc Jayson Cayabyab