POGOs warned of closure if found involved in kidnappings

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) found to be involved in kidnapping and killing Chinese nationals will be shut down, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos told lawmakers yesterday.

Abalos issued the statement during his confirmation hearing before the Commission on Appointments (CA) when Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel asked what he could do to stop the spate of kidnappings.

“The PNP (Philippine National Police) Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) is moving fast to address these… and if there are POGOs found to be involved, we’ll have them closed,” Abalos said, addressing concerns over viral videos showing Chinese nationals as both kidnapper and victim.

He urged the families and loved ones of kidnap victims to immediately report and fully cooperate with the police so that perpetrators could be arrested.

He disclosed that the PNP-AKG, in a pre-dawn operation yesterday in an area just outside Metro Manila, rescued 42 Chinese nationals who were apparently connected to POGOs.

Abalos said the PNP-AKG also rescued a kidnapped Malaysian woman in a separate operation.

Immigration reforms

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla pushed for immigration reforms and modernization to allow the government to build up a biometric database of foreigners in the country and monitor their movements amid the abductions and killings involving Chinese nationals.

Remulla issued the statement in his separate confirmation hearings before the CA also yesterday.

The justice chief, who supervises the Bureau of Immigration, said the kidnapping and killing of foreigners are both immigration and police matters.

“We are a country that has visa-free (entry) for most nationals entering. Even for those entering, we don’t have a good record of them, especially biometric records, that we have to keep,” Remulla told the CA committee on justice chaired by Sen. Francis Tolentino.

He said there should be a systematic way of processing foreigners since there is an estimated 800,000 illegal aliens in the country. “It’s (illegal aliens) a problem we have to face right now,” he said. – Rudy Santos, Emmanuel Tupas, Ric Sapnu