TURNOVER Outgoing Interior Secretary and now senatorial aspirant Benhur Abalos talks with his successor, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, during Wednesday’s leadership turnover rites at the main office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Quezon City. —Niño Jesus Orbeta
MANILA, Philippines — Newly installed Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday said the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo) hub operating inside the 36-hectare Island Cove in Cavite province will be shut down by Dec. 15.
Remulla officially assumed the post of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief in a turnover ceremony on Wednesday, replacing Benhur Abalos, who will run for senator in the 2025 midterm elections.
READ: New DILG chief Remulla vows crackdown on Pogo hubs in Cavite
“I talked to Island Cove Pogo owners yesterday. It’s my home province and the property used to be owned by my family. They will close down Dec. 15 for good,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony. “That was my last act as governor.”
Island Cove is owned by businessman Kim Wong and it was identified by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission as the biggest Pogo hub in the country.
In comparison, the closed Pogo hub of Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Bamban, Tarlac province, had 32 buildings on the 10-hectare complex, while Lucky South 99 in Porac town, Pampanga province, had 46 buildings on the 10-hectare property.
Allegations
In his third State of the Nation Address in July, President Marcos made a directive to shut down all Pogo operations by the end of the year, citing their involvement in criminal activities.
Remulla said 80 percent of Pogo hubs are in Metro Manila and the agency will “make sure that everything is closed” between Dec. 15 and 31.
Early this year, he denied rumors that his family had any existing ties to Island Cove and its alleged Pogo operations.
He even offered a P10-million reward to anyone who could prove their links to the Pogo establishment in Island Cove, including allegations that the former leisure destination was being protected by the Department of Justice, which is headed by his brother Jesus Crispin, or members of his family.
Self-contained complex
Another brother, Gilbert, was appointed a director of the state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) in 2022.
In 2018, the island resort in Kawit, Cavite, ceased operations after the Remulla family sold the property to Wong, who is engaged in the Pogo business.
The resort was retrofitted to be a self-contained Pogo complex with offices for operators, dormitories to house the Chinese workers who man the gaming operations, and several commercial and recreation establishments to cater to the needs of the thousands of foreign employees expected to live there.
The idea was to make the people involved in Pogos to work, eat, play and sleep in the complex to minimize the social ills that civil society groups have been blaming on the Pogos.
The facility was reported to be able to accommodate 20,000 to 50,000 workers.
In May 2024, at the height of protests to close down Pogos in the country, then Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla clarified that their family was not involved in any Pogo operations and emphasized that they no longer owned the island resort that was converted into a gaming center.
Remulla also noted that the permits given to the Pogo in their former property were released in 2020 and that his brother Gilbert did not participate in the release of those permits.
Security risk
In 2019, former Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana expressed concern about the location of casino and Pogo sites near vital military installations.
Lorenzana noted that the Chinese workers in Pogo facilities could shift their operations to spying, and to mitigate such risks, the former defense chief said the government should designate a Pogo camp “far from military camps.”
The alarm on Pogo locations near Armed Forces of the Philippines sites lingered for years and in June 2024, security expert Chester Cabalza called them as a “Trojan horse” that could be used by China to stage a “surprise attack” against vital military installations.
These sites include the Island Cove property, which is located along the coast of Manila Bay and just a few kilometers from Sangley Point, a former US base in Cavite. —with a report from Inquirer Research