PAOCC: 1,000 illegal Pogo workers nabbed, only around 10,000 more to go
PENDING DEPORTATION An immigration agent watches over the 32 foreigners caught at a gaming hub in Parañaque City on Jan. 17. —Photo from the Bureau of Immigration.
MANILA, Philippines — The government continues to run after an estimated 9,860 workers of shuttered Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) as its crackdown has so far netted only around 1,000 out of the targeted 11,000.
“In compliance with the directive of Executive Secretary and Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) Chair Lucas Bersamin for us to intensify our raids, we have already rounded up 899 foreign detainees in the custody of the PAOCC while the Bureau of Immigration (BI) is holding about 200 to 300 foreign nationals. So if we add these all up, from January until today, we have already neutralized more than 1,000 of them,” PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said on Tuesday.
“So if there are still about 11,000 of them remaining based on records of the BI, minus the 1,100, we just have about 9,000 to go after,” added Casio, PAOCC deputy head for operations.
READ: Tulfo sounds alarm; only 10% of Pogo workers were deported after deadline
Casio made the statement following the series of raids conducted by the interagency task force against Pogo remnants said to be involved in “guerrilla-type” activities.
Failed operation
On Thursday, government operatives raided a suspected Pogo hub serving as an alleged scam center at the PBCom Tower on Ayala Avenue in Makati City’s central business district but failed to make any arrests.
Citing intelligence information, Casio said about 600 to 1,100 foreign nationals were suspected to be working there.
“Unfortunately, we believe they were tipped off about two hours earlier, or perhaps they got wind of our operations, which allowed them to escape,” he said over the government television program “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.”
Casio said an estimated 11,000 Pogo workers went underground after the government imposed a total ban on the industry last year. They have since split up into smaller units, which have been conducting clandestine operations.
“We see more of these raids because there’s still more of them out there—these were those that … were never legal in the first place,” he added.
After the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. caused the rebranding of Pogos into internet gaming licensees in 2023, the number of licensed firms dwindled from 200 to 46, Casio said.
“So these are the remnants that we are now going after … We already know where they are, but we are just building up the case before we can round them up because we cannot simply swoop down [on] a building without a proper legal basis. Otherwise, the government might face charges,” he said.
