Duterte defends POGOs, wants regulating law

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte defended anew yesterday the operations of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and even suggested that Congress pass a law regulating the Chinese-run firms.

He noted that the government earns huge revenues from the gambling firms, money that he said can be used to “help the nation.”

Economic managers have said POGOs are paying only a fraction of the taxes and it is difficult to collect the proper revenues from offshore gaming. ?

“Now, there is a compelling reason, if there is no other reason and there is no legal impediment, I want it legalized. If they can pass a law about POGO, fine, go ahead. Supervise it by law, not us,” the President told reporters at Malacañang last Monday.?

“We are not justifying it. We are just saying that it is allowed because we need the funds,” he added. 

Duterte said Chinese nationals cannot be barred from entering the Philippines because Chinese authorities allow Filipinos to work in their country. ?

“If they are here under the entry expedited by the Chinese embassy but they are here to work as bonafide workers of POGO, there’s nothing I can do about it. Unless you want to, I said, jeopardize the Filipinos in (China),” he said. ?

Lawmakers should pass a law regulating POGOs if they have issues about the supervision of the gambling entities, Duterte said.

Various illegal acts have been tied to the operation of POGOs, the latest being the alleged links between some of their transactions to various suspicious activities including violations of e-commerce act, fraud and illegal drugs. ?

POGOs, which employ and target Chinese nationals, have also been associated with the trafficking and prostitution of Chinese women, tax evasion, kidnapping of Chinese nationals and the so-called “pastillas” bribery scheme, which led to the entry of illegal Chinese workers. 

The President also expressed doubts on reports that POGOs are being used for money laundering. ?

“With regard to the speculation of senators that they (POGOs) are being used for (money) laundering, well... we have a listing of their deposits. There is a report of money laundering. But in the banks themselves, there is none,” Duterte said.  

“Money laundering... what will you use to pay? You are engaged in the business. You deposit money, you withdraw money. It’s running. There are winners. There are losers. So they need to pay. And that’s it. If they want the payment to emanate from the Philippines, there’s nothing that we can do,” he added. ?

“But if you say... the money laundering was not seen by regulators... we were given a copy. It’s not true.”?With regard to the abduction of Chinese POGO workers, Duterte said there were also kidnapping incidents among Koreans.  

Duterte assured the public that all revenues generated from POGOs would be accounted for. “There is no corruption there. We did not speak to anybody but Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.)... If you have a recording, a telephone conversation, if you saw me talking to (Pagcor chief) Andrea (Domingo) about money, then you are sorely mistaken. It’s just the opposition. Because you are thieves,” he said. 

Lawmakers support POGOs

Ranking lawmakers yesterday supported the decision of President Duterte to allow the continued operations of POGO in the country.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, House ways and means committee chair, and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, appropriations committee chair, both agreed with Duterte that POGOs should not be shut down and banned, considering the benefits they bring to the country’s economy.

The two lawmakers said the revenue raised by the government from the industry is not solely the P8.8 billion in regulatory and franchise taxes paid by POGO firms.

Salceda revealed that the government has actually collected at least P22.4 billion worth of taxes from POGOs in 2018 and 2019 alone.

He said the bulk of the revenue derived from POGOs were the value-added tax (VAT) collected from rental of POGO office spaces, VAT from workers’ consumption and excise taxes.

Salceda said that the POGO industry had been steadily growing, from P156 billion in 2017, P305.7 billion in 2018 and P574.5 billion in 2019.

He said that revenue from workers’ consumption and rent payments had even reached P94 billion during the same period.

“Do we look like we’re being shortchanged given our expenditures, like on the police for instance? I don’t think so. Just look at the taxes (collected from POGOs),” Salceda told reporters in an interview.

“There is empirical evidence to support the position of (President Duterte). You can say that (the benefits outweigh the cost),” he added.

Yap also opposed proposals to suspend or ban POGOs, arguing that issues against them could be addressed without necessarily stopping their operations that he believed have been beneficial to the country’s economy.  – With Edu Punay