Island Cove’s jobless: The other side of the Pogo ban

MANILA, Philippines — It’s time to return to the harsh reality of job insecurity for Janet Peredo.

She is at her wit’s end finding a new job after the Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in Island Cove, Cavite province, shut down operations and retrenched employees in accordance with President Marcos’ Pogo ban.

Peredo, 57, has been working as an administrative clerk in the cove for 10 years—or since 2014, when the island was known as Island Cove Resort and Leisure Park owned by the Remulla political clan.

READ: Remulla vows to close all Pogos

Peredo clearly remembers Aug. 1, 2018, when the new owners, First Orient International Ventures Corp., absorbed her. The company bought the cove earlier that year. She recalls how her life changed for the better that day as her salary tripled.

“As a single parent, this job has been a really big help for me because this is my bread and butter. I’m the only one working for my family. Because of this job, I was able to support my child’s education. My child finished college,” Peredo said.

Pogo casualties

She is still unemployed and is not confident about her chances of finding a new job since she is three years away from being a senior citizen.

Peredo is one of 12,000 Filipinos, 5,000 from Cavite, displaced by the hub’s closure, a casualty of the foul reputation of other Pogo entities in the country.

“I felt sad for myself. I felt sad for my colleagues because I know that some of them might lose the means to eat three times a day,” she said.

The nationalities of about 4,000 other workers in the hub include Malaysians, Vietnamese, Cambodians and Chinese.

“The biggest impact of the closure was felt by the employees. Especially those who have been with us since day one. Those that we absorbed [were] from the old Island Cove Resort, who [had] been with Island Cove Resort for how many years,” Ron Lim, outgoing general manager of the compound, told the Inquirer.

Conception Guttierez, another retrenched employee, and others she worked with at the laundry service in the hub have yet to find jobs, too.

“There are about 15 or 17 of us who are unemployed. There’s nothing to rely on,” Guttierez said.

Lim said they were “saddened” that the bad reputation of other Pogos has smeared Island Cove.

“Sometimes they think that First Orient is also a Pogo hub, so maybe [it is] also involved in the illegal things that other so-called hubs are being accused of ... like torture, human trafficking, kidnapping,” Lim said.

“But Island Cove completely doesn’t have any [of that]. We pride ourselves [on] paying the right taxes, complying with all the guidelines set by the (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) and all the government agencies,” he added.

Lim, who was also retrenched, said they even launched a hotline within the compound to report scams or other illegal activities and have not received any complaints for the last three years since they started operations.

Marcos, citing cases of human trafficking, harsh working environment, torture, and online scams by the mostly Chinese-owned industry, issued last month Executive Order No. 74 banning Pogos in the country. They were given until the end of 2024 to cease operations and move out of the Philippines.

Ghost town

The Inquirer was one of select members of the media invited to join the Kawit local government’s ocular inspection of the hub on Dec. 11.

Rey Santos, Kawit municipal administrator, confirmed First Orient’s assertion that it did not operate illegal activities.

The 35-hectare island was transformed into a commune in 2018. The hub only operated for three years following its construction from 2018 to 2021.

Buildings with red accents were identified as the offices while those with yellow were dormitories. There were groceries, salons, restaurants and other establishments within the compound to cater to workers’ needs.

Workers like Guttierez would eat in a canteen that offered a free and unlimited buffet. But today, the canteen, which, just a few months ago, boasted a spotless kitchen, emitted the rancid odor of old cooking oil.

“This used to be a happy place,” Santos said, with the hub’s busy yet well-maintained streets. The entrance used to be filled with thousands of packages from food-hailing apps or online shopping every day.

Several floors for customer service representatives that used to buzz with phone calls lie empty in deafening silence and cleared-out desks. All the equipment and furniture from the businesses in the hub’s lifestyle district have been pulled out.

The hub has become a ghost town of empty streets and moldy buildings.

Lost revenue, income

Santos said the closure of Island Cove also meant a P40 million annual loss for the Kawit government—from real property taxes to business permit issuances.

He noted that the hub generated income even for taxi drivers who earned as much as P50,000 a month and translators from P80,000 to P100,000. The minimum wage was set at P20,000.

He added that even businesses outside the hub made tons of profits, and, indirectly, tricycle drivers, sari-sari store owners, and baby bus operators.

Kawit has already coordinated with the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to arrange job fairs and startup business assistance for the displaced workers.

“But it’s going to be hard to match the previous salaries because those were a lot higher compared to what they will get from other jobs outside. Their compensation here was big and they had benefits, too,” Santos said.

Aside from government support, employees like Peredo, Guttierez and Lim were given generous separation pay by First Orient.

The focus now, Lim said, is providing former employees support to help keep them afloat, especially during the Christmas holidays.

Santos said they have received proposals to turn the cove into a school or a hospital, but ultimately it will be First Orient, the current owners, who will decide the property’s fate.

(2024/12/16-05:33)