158 foreigners, 29 Filipinos rescued from Pogo hub in Pampanga

INQUIRER FILES

PORAC, Pampanga — Authorities rescued 158 foreigners and 29 Filipinos working at a “rouge” Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) inside a multi-use estate in this town on Wednesday, June 5.

Dr. Winston Casio, spokesperson for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), said authorities served a warrant issued by Judge Maria Belinda Rama of Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 14 against Lucky South 99.

“The warrant was issued based on a complaint that human trafficking is happening inside the said rouge Pogo. The warrant is for violations of Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking Act, specifically for sexual and labor trafficking,” Casio said.

He said combined operatives from the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, other police units, and the Department of Justice’s IACAT, under the supervision of PAOCC, served the warrant.

The alleged Pogo hub is inside the vast Royal Garden Estate, which sits along the boundaries of Porac and Angeles City.

“The raid stemmed from a report received from confidential informants that a female foreign national is being sexually trafficked in the area and that male foreign nationals are being tortured,” Casio said.

Of the 157 foreign nationals, 126 were Chinese, 23 Vietnamese, four Malaysians, four Myanmar nationals, and one Korean. INQ