FIRST SAY:
“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”
― Abraham Lincoln
The above quote by Abraham Lincoln is framable enough to be displayed in a public official’s office.
I remember former Mayor Vicente “Enteng” Eusebio of Pasig City having a beautiful frame with this quote in his office at the Pasig City Hall. That was the first time that I saw this quotation, and it did not leave my mind ever since. I used to be Mayor Eusebio’s media officer during his long years in office, and also served his wife, Mayor Solly who took over the city’s top executive post after Mayor Enteng and before their son, Bobby.
In that capacity, I saw how the city of Pasig was transformed from a municipality to a city, from its rustic atmosphere to its urban setting, all to be credited to Enteng Eusebio’s vision and action.
I wonder who in today’s local officials subscribed to this thought by the first American president.
Now, down to business.
Last week, Secretary Ralph Recto of the Department of Finance told reporters that some businesses identify themselves as POGOs even if they are not legitimate offshore gaming operators.
“Today, there are a lot of POGOs that are not really POGOs because they are doing something else. But we generalize and call all of them POGOs,” Recto said.
There is truth to this statement from the finance secretary, as confirmed by the series of raids being conducted by good friend Gilbert Cruz of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), on several compounds of modern and formidable buildings, first in Bamban, Tarlac, and later in Porac, Pampanga.
These establishments possess legitimate licenses as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) but the bulk of their operations are not online gaming abroad.
The pieces of evidence collected by Gilbert Cruz’s team, which was assisted by the Philippine National Police, point to such activities as love scams, cryptocurrency scams, harassment, torture, violence, and other crimes—both in Bamban and in Porac. I understand that the raid in Porac against an establishment called Lucky 99 is on its fourth day now, and counting. Luck has indeed ran out for the owners and operators of this gaming and scamming firm.
About Gilbert, the indefatigable police officer, let me digress a little with a small anecdote. It was the morning of Christmas Day years ago, at President Joseph Estrada’s bungalow-like prison inside the Veterans Memorial Hospital in QC. Seated in the living room was this handsome and well-built man (I don’t know him then) and I, looking at each other curiously. We did not know each other, but surmised that we must share the same degree of closeness to Erap, for visiting him very early in the morning of December 25.
When the incarcerated President joined us, Erap asked how we were doing. The man said he was reassigned or pushed aside to an assignment in the Eastern Police District. Oh, so he is a policeman, I thought. He must have been good in his job, for Erap is known for choosing and recognizing the best in the police force. Such as PNP chief Panfilo Lacson.
Gilbert and I were to see each other again years later at Manila City Hall, where I was appointed chief of the City Public Information Office under Mayor Joseph Estrada, and Brig. Gen. Gilbert Cruz was a senior PNP official in line to be the chief of the Philippine National Police, except that Digong Duterte won and Brig. Gen. Ronald dela Rosa was a shoo-in for the post.
Going back to the issue of POGOs, it looks like PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco’s renaming of these establishments as legitimate internet gaming licensees (IGLs) did not fly.
Even the finance secretary calls them by their old name.
Chairman Tengco said the real threat to national security are hacking and scam syndicates operated by foreigners, not legitimate and licensed offshore gaming operators such as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators.
Tengco said legitimate internet gaming licensees (IGLs) generate funds for the government, contributing more than P5 billion to the agency’s gross revenues in 2023.
“We should not blame and demonize our licensed gaming operators because these are closely monitored by PAGCOR. Our licensees pay taxes, and they help provide legitimate jobs and livelihood to a lot of people,” Tengco said in a statement.
“To us, the real threat are the alien hacking and scam syndicates who operate underground, and they are the ones that our law enforcement agencies are trying to locate and dismantle. We are cooperating fully with the authorities in this regard,” he also said.
Tengco said PAGCOR has embedded monitoring teams in the physical venues of all licensed gaming operators, including land-based casinos, to ensure compliance with the terms of their licenses.
Those found violating the provisions of their licenses are meted fines and penalties and, in the most serious offenses, the licenses are revoked and their bonds forfeited.
“We do not need to outlaw POGOs; what we need to do is intensify anti-crime operations against suspected alien hackers, against scammers and cyber criminals who are usually hiding in highly secured buildings and compounds,” Tengco said.
“These criminal syndicates are not engaged in offshore gaming at all, and even if they are, they are doing it illegally. So they are the real threat, and we must go after them with everything that we have,” he added.
Chairman Tengco and his subordinates who are supervising the operations of POGOs need to tighten the screws a bit and wage an all-out war against the illegals in this line of business.
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