Seized Pogo properties pose next gov’t challenge

The President’s decision to ban Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) has presented new challenges for the government, particularly the legal gaps related to managing assets such as buildings and lands confiscated from alleged criminal operations linked to these hubs.

Over the past months, lawmakers and officials have proposed various uses for the idle properties, including converting them into evacuation centers, schools, or government offices.

However, Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Ty, head of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) established by law in 2012, highlighted one of the many concerns they faced: the need for immediate access to the resources seized from suspected scam hubs to support trafficking victims and Pogo employees rescued during raids.

“[There is] an absence of a clear provision that expressly empowers [the] state [to] provisionally use assets pending forfeiture, especially money that can be used to maintain victims and facilities,” Ty told the Inquirer on Thursday.

READ: Authorities raid Pogo hub in Bataan BPO company

Although the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act signed in July 2024 addresses this matter, Ty noted that Iacat was still waiting for its implementing rules and regulations.

In the meantime, the government found a “creative solution”—“commandeering” raided facilities and using them to house thousands of trafficking victims, he said.

According to Iacat’s records, over 3,000 Pogo employees have been rescued and “presumed to be victims of human trafficking.”

“We do not really have enough shelters to house these victims of trafficking, and if we do let them out, chances are they are just gonna be re-trafficked or revictimized in another scam hub,” Ty said during a forum last Tuesday organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute.

A comprehensive inventory of the total number of buildings, floor area, land area, and estimated value has not been published by the authorities following the raids on these hubs, notably those in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga.

There has also been no disclosure of any plan by responsible government agencies to inspect these properties to determine whether they were suitable for classrooms, offices, medical facilities, evacuation centers, or other purposes while criminal and civil forfeiture cases are pending.

New Marcos warning

Less than three weeks before his year-end deadline to shut down all Pogos in the country, which he announced in his State of the Nation Address in July, President Marcos warned that those who run “guerrilla” or rogue Pogo and internet gaming licensees (IGLs) after he had canceled all their licenses.

Mr. Marcos formalized the ban in November under Executive Order No. 74.

“We will never let them wreak havoc on us again. Anyone who attempts to launch illegal operations will face the full force of our laws,” the President said.

He posted his remarks on Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday night, after meeting with Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chair Alejandro Tengco, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) chief Gilbert Cruz, Interior Secretary Juan Victor “Jonvic” Remulla and other government officials on winding down the operations of the remaining offshore gaming hubs.

On Thursday morning, the President ordered law enforcement agencies to carry out small but multiple operations against offshore gaming operators that were still running their businesses despite the ban.

He directed local officials to coordinate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in going after Pogos and IGLs in their areas and ordered the DILG to step up gathering intelligence on the presence of Pogos in communities.

Canceled licenses

According to Malacañang, 53,700 Pogo licenses were canceled, while 18 IGLs voluntarily canceled theirs as of Nov. 29. By Dec. 31, all licenses will be deemed canceled, and the Philippines will supposedly be “Pogo-free” by January 2025.

It said 353,000 visas had been issued to foreign workers for these gaming establishments. By the end of the Duterte administration, only 33,863 remained, and 23,099 of them recently left the country.

Many more foreigners, mostly Chinese, entered the country as tourists and found jobs as Pogo workers, according to a Senate investigation of the pastillas scam. The total number of foreign workers working legally and illegally in Pogos could far exceed the number of legitimate employment visas issued by the government.

During Tuesday’s forum, Ty said that since Pogo hubs were usually one-stop shops, not just the offices but actual residences of the trafficking victims, the government used the facilities to temporarily house rescued workers there.

He said that under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, “proceeds of instruments of human trafficking can be forfeited in favor of Iacat for the benefit of victims of human trafficking.”

No typical victim

Another significant legal challenge is “victim identification” and “forced criminality” because many rescued individuals refuse to see themselves as trafficking victims, Ty said.

He said that human trafficking, often described as modern-day slavery, differs from past enslavement where victims were treated as property.

“And that’s why it becomes even more complex in the victimology of the trafficking victims and the scam hubs. Because they are not, at least from the Philippine perspective, the typical trafficking victim who is from a very poor location who is mired in poverty, who is not that educated,” he explained.

“The victims of human trafficking, at least from the Philippines—well, even from other countries—they're usually college graduates from middle-income families. They’re tech-savvy,” Ty added.

He said the authorities will use other measures, such as anticorruption laws, to prosecute “other enablers” of human trafficking like government officials.

‘Leakage’ probe

For its part, the Supreme Court said it found no evidence linking members of the judiciary to the alleged “leakage” of information regarding the Porac raid last June.

Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on Wednesday told reporters that preliminary inquiries “did not get positive results" and that judges and court staff were involved.

When authorities raided the Pogo compound in Porac, the PAOCC found only 158 Chinese, Vietnamese, and Malaysians instead of the more than 1,000 individuals who were supposedly there at the time—an indication that the operators had insider information about the raid.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian later alleged the result of the raid showed the possible influence of Chinese syndicates in the judiciary and that when PAOCC requested a search warrant, the Pogo operators received a tip.

His allegation prompted the high tribunal to initiate its investigation.

(2024/12/13-05:30)