EDITORIAL - Torture hubs

The video images show horrific scenes of torture: in one case, a naked, handcuffed man cowered under a bed as he was electrocuted. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission recovered the video footage from a Philippine offshore gaming operator hub in Porac that was raided recently. PAOCC officials released the videos showing what they said were POGO workers being tortured even for minor infractions such as failure to pay debts or perform certain types of work.

These are not the first cases of physical abuse, however, involving POGOs. Almost as soon as the offshore gaming operations were launched during the Duterte administration, reports began piling up of POGO employees, mostly Chinese, being arrested for a slew of serious offenses including kidnapping for ransom, torture, rape, human trafficking, drug dealing and murder. The targets were mainly fellow Chinese nationals, but other foreigners were also among the victims.

PAOCC officials said the cases of torture were recorded on video because the images were sent to the victims’ relatives overseas either for ransom or as part of the victims’ punishment. Earlier this year, a Chinese-Filipino was kidnapped and one of his fingers cut off to demand ransom; he was later found dead.

These heinous offenses are apart from the illegal entry of thousands of Chinese as tourists, who were eventually found to be working in POGOs. Offshore gaming has engendered corruption, with immigration personnel charged for facilitating the illegal entry of POGO workers, and members of the police Special Weapons and Tactics team sacked for moonlighting as POGO security escorts.

Senators are currently looking into the possibility that dirty money from POGOs has financed election campaigns, which allowed Alice Guo to become mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. The senators have noted that POGOs aren’t even contributing the correct taxes that the government estimates should be generated from offshore gaming.

With all these crimes and social ills confirmed to be associated with POGOs, it’s intriguing that the Marcos administration, like its predecessor, can’t let go of POGOs, and has even launched a new version of offshore gaming under a different name. Advocates of a total ban on offshore gaming have pointed out that the country has little to lose but much to gain if POGOs are shut down. At the very least, a ban will prevent the country from developing a reputation as one of the sleazy centers of kidnapping and torture in Asia.