MANILA – Law enforcement agencies, led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), rescued 162 foreign nationals from an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu on Saturday.
According to PAOCC, the inter-agency raid on the property of the Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus stemmed from the request of the Indonesian Embassy to rescue eight of their nationals being held in the alleged illegal POGO hub.
Operatives from PAOCC, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Central Visayas, Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) Central Visayas, and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) rescued 162 foreign nationals found working on the scam farm, including 83 Chinese, 70 Indonesian, 2 Taiwanese, 6 Burmese, and a Malaysian.
Five Filipinos engaged in scamming activities were also found, the PAOCC said.
Six of the eight Indonesians requested to be extracted were among those rescued.
“All foreign nationals will be brought to Manila to face inquest proceedings for violation of immigration laws,” a statement from POACC sent to reporters read.
Authorities will conduct an inventory of the property in preparation for an application of a warrant to search and examine computer data.
In his third State of the Nation Address in July, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. banned all POGOs in the country after several of these establishments were implicated in crimes including scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, torture, and murder. (PNA)
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