EDITORIAL - Total POGO ban

Remember the POGOs? The intensifying political turbulence has edged out Alice Guo and the illegal activities that prompted the government to finally impose a total ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators and their state-sponsored version, the IGL or internet gaming licensee.

With national attention now focused on the bitter feud between the Marcos-Romualdez and Duterte clans, authorities may lose sight of the year-end deadline for the complete shutdown of all POGOs and IGLs, without exemption. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, which had conducted raids on major POGO hubs, and other law enforcement agencies have reported that the POGOs have splintered into smaller operations and have gone underground. Filipinos who learned the ropes from the original Chinese operators are now running offshore gaming and related cyberscams, the PAOCC said.

Like drug trafficking, gaming is big business, especially the illegal operations. Kidnapping and murder have been perpetrated in connection with illegal gaming activities, as the nation saw in the still unresolved disappearance of 34 cockfighting aficionados between April 2021 and January 2022. POGOs won’t readily give up their lucrative operations. Authorities have reported efforts of POGOs to set up fronts including restaurants and resorts to conceal their operations.

Some foreign POGO operators may also borrow a page from Alice Guo, who is accused of being a Chinese citizen who faked her Philippine citizenship for a successful run as mayor of Bamban town in Tarlac. Authorities must ensure that the network that provides fake Philippine birth certificates to foreigners has been dismantled and a system is in place to prevent its resurgence.

At the height of the controversy over POGOs and Alice Guo, multiple probes unearthed criminal activities apart from digital scams, including torture, human trafficking and even murder. Cyber sleuths detected a notable reduction in certain cybercrime activities following the raids on several POGO hubs.

The government is expecting about 20,000 foreign POGO workers to leave the country this month, before the deadline lapses for the full shutdown of all offshore gaming activities. Apart from ensuring that no one stays behind to buy a fake Philippine birth certificate, authorities must see to it that the ban is fully enforced.