EDITORIAL - More trouble than they’re worth

Several Chinese-Filipinos are reportedly worried about their children attending in-person classes. Some business establishments owned by Tsinoys in Metro Manila are closing down early. Others have increased their vigilance in public areas or when dealing with strangers.

The reason, according to Tsinoy leaders, is concern that ransom kidnappings, currently targeting mainland Chinese and perpetrated by their Chinese compatriots abetted by some Filipinos, might spill over and again plague the Tsinoy community.

Last Wednesday in Angeles City, Pampanga, police rescued a Chinese being held for ransom and 42 others who were working under human trafficking conditions in a POGO firm. The human resource manager, a Chinese, was arrested. On Thursday, police arrested in Pasay four Chinese employees of a POGO firm based in the city along with a Filipino driver. Police said the four belonged to a crime ring engaged in kidnapping for ransom targeting Chinese, with the POGO office used as a safehouse.

The kidnappings have prompted calls from several lawmakers to end POGO operations nationwide. Even Beijing has long frowned on the POGOs, and had asked the Philippines in the past to shut down the operations, pointing out that offshore gaming is illegal in China.

Cambodia had acceded to Beijing’s request and shut down Chinese-run gaming operations in that country. On the other hand, while Rodrigo Duterte during his presidency embraced many things Chinese and often expressed admiration for President Xi Jinping, one request from the Chinese government was repeatedly rejected by the Duterte administration: the shutdown of POGOs.

Apparently expressing his economic managers’ opinion, Duterte said the Philippines needed revenues from the POGOs. The need intensified amid the economic typhoon unleashed by the COVID pandemic. When the government pursued POGOs for more taxes and other fees, however, most of the gaming firms simply shut down and their Chinese employees left the country. Some operated clandestinely.

From the start, POGO firms have been hounded by reports of criminal activities involving their employees. Apart from ransom kidnapping, there have been reports of sex trafficking whose victims include Filipino women, forced labor, drug trafficking and even murder. The so-called pastillas corruption scandal in the Bureau of Immigration involved payoffs for the illegal entry of Chinese employees for POGO firms.

Police officials have said “Chinese gangsters” now exploit the POGO network to operate in the Philippines. Whatever gains the Philippine government had hoped to achieve in allowing POGOs to operate have been negated by the ills associated with online gaming. Malacañang should listen to senators who are saying that POGOs have become more trouble than they’re worth, and act accordingly.