The country’s biggest Philippine offshore gaming operator compound, located in Kawit, Cavite, is shut down Dec. 17, 2024. (PNA photo by Yancy Lim)
MANILA – If there was one single act of President Ferdinand R.Marcos Jr. that met the widest applause and loudest cheers of Filipinos, it was the banning of POGOs or Philippine offshore gaming operations that had become a den of crime and corruption and a symbol of moral decline.
“Effective today, all POGOs are banned,” the President declared in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) before a joint session of Congress in July 2024.
Nearly everyone in attendance stood in ovation and applauded the President’s announcement.
“Disguised as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas far removed from gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, and even murder,” Marcos said.
“The grave abuse and disrespect of our system of laws must stop. We need to stop this disruption in our society and the desecration of our country.”
Executive fiat
The President subsequently issued Executive Order (EO) No. 74, mandating all POGOs to cease operations by Dec. 31, 2024.
In issuing EO 74, Marcos said “the State has the paramount duty to safeguard national security, maintain public order, uphold the rule of law, protect the safety of its citizens, and ensure the integrity of the social fabric of the nation.”
The EO cited a Department of Finance (DOF) study saying that the adverse impact and social costs of POGO operations—increased crime rates, social instability, and exploitation of vulnerable sectors—far outweighed the economic benefits they offered.
Marcos directed law enforcement and anti-corruption entities to intensify operations against POGOs that continue to operate despite the ban. At the second Joint National Peace and Order Council-Regional Peace and Order Councils meeting in Camp Crame, he emphasized smaller but more frequent operations to address the issue.
The President instructed the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Philippine National Police (PNP), and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to enforce the ban effectively. He also called on local chief executives to collaborate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in monitoring and dismantling illegal POGO operations within their jurisdictions.
“Suspicious illegal activities, especially those concerning POGOs, should be monitored by the LGUs,” Marcos said. “The DILG should step up gathering substantial intelligence from local communities.”
Political will and full enforcement of the law
The PNP fully backed the President’s directive.
“This decisive measure is in alignment with our commitment to enhancing national security, maintaining public order, and protecting our communities from the adverse impacts linked to POGO operations, including rising crime rates, social instability, and the exploitation of vulnerable individuals,” the PNP said in a statement on Nov. 11, 2024.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said since the crackdown, POGOs have become more like scams. “Some of the big operators are now involved in illegal numbers games. We are still monitoring their activities, particularly outside Metro Manila. Under the President’s instruction, we aim to end POGOs within the year.”
Task Force Skimmer, led by the PNP’s Anti-Cybercrime Group, spearheaded enforcement efforts to dismantle illegal operations and ensure that the President’s order was carried out to the letter.
As of Nov. 29, 2024, 53,700 offshore gaming employment licenses had been canceled, and 45 Internet Gaming License (IGL) operators had either voluntarily canceled their licenses or were winding down operations.
More than 2,300 foreign workers linked to closed POGO operations have been deported, most of them to China, according to Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission Chief Gilbert Cruz.
Eight individuals have been charged with human trafficking involving illegal POGOs in Bamban, Tarlac. They allegedly held their victims against their will and forced them to work, according to CIDG Chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III,
In a separate operation, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested 17 individuals in a scam hub in Parañaque City. NBI Director Jaime Santiago said the victims were lured into cryptocurrency investments and gambling schemes that ensured they lost.
One Chinese national was charged with attempted bribery and violation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act.
Largest POGO compound shut down
The largest POGO facility in Kawit, Cavite, was shut down in November, as DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla confirmed that all POGO operations in the country will cease by the end of 2024.
“As promised, we visited in December to see that everything was closed,” said Remulla during the formal closure of the compound. “Per the local government administrator, they inspected the facility in the last week of November, and there were no more operations.”
Still, a few underground POGO operators remain active, masquerading as resorts or BPOs. PAOCC Director Winnie Quidato noted, “The large POGOs we previously raided are now breaking down into smaller groups, rebranding themselves as BPOs. The name POGO has already been tarnished.”
But the government is going after them without let-up. “We and the PAOCC are together on this. We will jointly pursue all of these until everything is resolved,” Remulla said.
Few legitimate ones left
The number of licensed POGOs has significantly decreased from 60 in mid-2024 to just seven, with all remaining operators cooperating with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the Bureau of Immigration, and the Department of Labor and Employment.
“All licensees are following the process,” PAGCOR Chairperson Alejandro Tengco said. “They are cooperating with both PAGCOR and the Bureau of Immigration along with the Department of Labor and Employment.”
Support for displaced workers
Displaced workers are being helped transition to better, more stable jobs. “The Department of Labor and Department of Trade and Industry are setting up job fairs for displaced workers,” Remulla said.
Meanwhile, DILG Undersecretary for Operations Lord Villanueva highlighted the severe crimes associated with POGOs. “Slave labor is used in POGOs,” he said. “Tech-savvy individuals are lured with promises of high salaries, enslaved, tortured, and even killed if they don’t comply. That’s why the President banned them and why the full force of the government has been mobilized to ensure these illegal POGOs no longer proliferate in our country.”
“Let no more wrong be committed”
And so, in one fell swoop, the President ended all the evil that the POGOs had come to represent.
While acknowledging that banning POGOs does not address all the problems the Philippines is facing, he pointed out it will help solve many.
“To solve all the problems that we have been suffering from, all officials, law enforcers, government workers, and most importantly, the citizenry, must always be vigilant, principled, and think of the nation’s well-being,” he said in his SONA.
“So, ladies and gentlemen, let me end by recalling the words of a great man: ‘Let no one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to achieve their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name,’” Marcos said.
“He is not a good man who, without protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name,” he concluded.
