A separate probe into kidnappings attributed to POGO activities has also been the focus of Gatchalian’s push for closing down POGOs, with the senator claiming that the probe had still found kidnapping related to a PAGCOR-licensed POGO compound as recently as last month.
Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for a total shutdown of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) within three months, submitting a report to the nation’s president who he claims will support his recommendations.
Gatchalian told media that POGO operators are “no longer businessmen, they are foreign criminals in our country”- referring to the claims of kidnapping. He also claims that there are incidents involving POGO-linked corruption at the Bureau of Immigration and Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“I personally support the industry, because of the health it is giving to about 25,000 Filipinos at present who are employed in said industry, and also to other businesses that are truly being benefitted,” the Chairman and CEO of PAGCOR, Alejandro H. Tengco said that the group would halt any unlicensed activity by the overseas operators, but that it continued to support their legal operation; in the other side of the coin
