Nearly 4,000 foreign workers deported, 500 in custody after ‘intensified’ POGO crackdown — PAOCC

Nearly 4,000 foreign workers have been deported and several major hubs dismantled, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) as a result of the government’s “intensified” campaign against illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

At a public briefing on Wednesday, Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz, PAOCC executive director, said coordinated raids with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Philippine National Police (PNP), and Department of Justice (DOJ) have led to the closure of large POGO compounds, including those linked to controversial figure Alice Guo in Pampanga and Cebu.

“Yung mga malalaki pong POGO hubs, the likes of the POGO hubs nila Alice Guo sa Porac at Cebu, napasara na po natin yan,” Cruz said. 

(We have already shut down large POGO hubs, including those linked to Alice Guo in Porac and Cebu.)

The majority of those arrested were foreign citizens involved in alleged criminal activities such as human trafficking, scamming and illegal detention within these POGO facilities. Cruz said 4,000 have already been deported, with another 500 are still in PAOCC custody.

In one landmark case involving a POGO hub in Clark, Pampanga, the Philippine government won in court and was awarded assets worth ?6 billion and seized cash amounting to ?185 million, Cruz added. 

While large-scale hubs have been shut down, Cruz warned that “guerrilla-style” POGO operations have sprung up in condominiums, private subdivisions, and even remote resorts, operating under the radar of authorities.

“Nag-form sila ng mga small groups… ngayon sila nag-ooperate sa mga condominiums, gated subdivisions, at minsan, sa mga resorts,” he said.

(They formed smaller groups… now they operate in condominiums, gated subdivisions, and sometimes in resorts.)

In his third State of the Nation Address in July 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. banned all POGOs in the country after several of these were implicated in crimes, including human trafficking, serious illegal detention, and money scams. — RF, GMA Integrated News