Finance Secretary Ralph Recto on Monday said he is inclined to ask President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to stop the activities of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) given the issues surrounding the apparently shady industry.
Recto told business journalists that while he is not fundamentally against POGOs as a form of business, the various illegal activities arising from POGO companies in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga have caused him to see these businesses in a bad light.
“Frankly, I’m not a fan of gambling and two, I’m not a fan of POGOs, really. But if they were not doing any hanky panky and they’re paying taxes, fine with me. But I think there are many issues already surrounding the POGO industry,” he said in a mixture of English and Filipino.
“Given that, like I said, I’m willing to recommend to the President that he not allow POGO operations to continue (in the Philippines),” he told reporters on the sidelines of the EJAP-SMC Economic Forum in Manila City.
Recto’s statement came amid an ongoing investigation into POGO s’ supposed links to Chinese organized crime syndicates as well as espionage activities.
“If they were not doing anything wrong, then maybe we could allow them (POGOs), but I think in general we don’t have to pin our hopes on POGO. In my case, with regard to the Department of Finance, I’m not in favor of POGO,” Recto added.
Recto’s predecessor, former Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, has repeatedly called for the ban of POGOs saying the industry has already been disallowed in other countries such as China and Cambodia.
Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin in October 2022 said the country can recover the potential losses from the exit of POGOs in other industries with high value-added.
Real estate services firm Leechiu Property Consultants said that the country will lose over PHP100 billion if the POGO industry is forced out of the country.
The Association of Service Providers and POGOs (ASAP) also warned that some 23,000 Filipinos would lose their jobs if the operators were banned from the country.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has created a panel to investigate Bamban town Mayor Alice Guo’s questionable nationality.
In a letter dated July 6, Comelec chairman George Garcia directed the poll body’s law department to create a “fact-finding committee to investigate the candidacy” of Guo, who won the elections in 2022.
“The committee will determine whether there was material misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy which would warrant the filing of an election offense case,” Garcia said in the letter.
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