Alice in POGOland

It bears pointing out that (1) there were no POGOs before Duterte’s term, and (2) there seem to be no POGOs in Mindanao, bakit kaya.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) started processing licenses for POGOs to shore up its revenue stream in September 2016. Philippine offshore gaming operators began their operations in November 2016.

NCR hosts a large number of POGOs in cities such as Makati, Pasay, Manila, Las Piñas, Mandaluyong, Parañaque, and Quezon City.

Also, regions outside Metro Manila cater to POGOs, including Regions III, IV-A, and VII.

FAST FORWARD to 2020. At a Senate hearing, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) bared its records of POGO transactions from 2017 to 2019.

… based on our records, the total flow of funds is approximately PhP54 billion only, combining inflows and outflows. If we deduct outflows from inflows, the net inflow is only approximately PhP7 billion. Comparing this to our PhP18.6 trillion economy, the PhP54 billion represents only 0.29%, and if we use the net inflow of PhP7 billion, this represents only 0.04% of the economy.

Also, that P14 billion of the P54 billion was linked to “suspicious activities”:

…about P138 million in Pogo transactions were linked to drug trafficking.

The other “suspicious” amounts were related to violations of the electronic commerce law (P4.9 billion), lack of legal or trade obligations (P4 billion), deviations from clients’ profiles (P2.4 billion), funds not commensurate to the business or personal capacity of a client (P2.2 billion), lack of proper identification of a client (P231 million), and fraud (P121 million).

FAST FORWARD to 2024 and the very curious case of Alice Guo, a very wealthy smalltown mayor with direct links to China and suspected of involvement in money laundering and other criminal POGO operations. She denies it all, of course, and insists she’s legit, a Filipino citizen who grew up on a farm altho she doesn’t remember or know much of her family or childhood or schooling, leading many to think her documents are fake and she’s an illegal Chinese migrant if not a spy.

Read “Bamban’s Mysterious Mayor” by John Berthelsen of Asia Sentinel.

… the reason for the mystery may lie in a raid by authorities on property that she was linked to – Hongsheng Gaming Technology Incorporated and Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated. Hongsheng was raided in February 2023 and was replaced by Zun Yuan in the same location. It was then again raided in March 2024 for charges of alleged human trafficking and serious illegal detention. In them, police found a vast online casino, called a Philippine Offshore Gambling Operator, or POGO, which catered to online gamblers in China, and rescued nearly 700 workers, including 202 Chinese nationals and 73 other foreigners who were forced to pose as online lovers.

Similar facilities have been found in Cambodia and Myanmar, estimated to employ as many as 75,000 to 250,000 people, many against their will, and run by organized crime figures, mostly Chinese. They have increasingly been chased out of Cambodia and the border regions between China and Myanmar as Chinese Supreme Leader Xi Jinping, angered by the lawlessness, exploitation, and damage to China’s reputation, has ordered them closed.

In Alice Guo’s case, there is a more disturbing concern. Two of the incorporators of Guo’s company Baofu Land Development, the compound where the Pogo firms were located, are Chinese national Zhang Ruijin, who was convicted in April for money laundering in Singapore, and Lin Baoying, who carries a Dominican passport and is also facing charges in Singapore. Guo is also listed as an incorporator in the company, along with Filipino national Rachel Joan Malonzo Carreon and Cypriot national Zhiyang Huang.

… Guo denied knowing about her partners’ background, telling lawmakers today (May 22) that she had only learned about their criminal records through social media posts by a lawmaker the day before by checking them out on the Internet.

Although Guo was found to have owned half of the land under the POGO, housed in long rows of buildings just behind her office, she told lawmakers she sold the property, which according to videos on local TV contained a grocery, warehouse, swimming pool, and even a wine cellar. As with the property, Guo says she sold her helicopter and Ford Expedition registered under her name long ago. She told lawmakers that she was “not a coddler, not a protector of POGOs.” She hasn’t commented on the spying allegations and has largely avoided media interviews since her appearance at the Senate last week and this week.

Read too Manolo Quezon‘s “What’s Guo-ing on”. 

For years now I’ve been suggesting that the political interests and thus, activities, of the People’s Republic of China should not be confused with the political and social clout of Pogos who exist in defiance of the Chinese government. The Pogos are, arguably, stronger: Beijing’s requests verging on orders, to Manila, for a crackdown on Pogos never resulted in anything more than cosmetic “busy-busihan” as money talks and Pogos have lavished funds on our upper, middle, and political classes; and since all politics is local, the easygoing spending of Pogos makes them more valuable than presidential patronage or foreign affairs. Investigations so far have been racist in their lazy assumptions and breezy unwillingness to take into account the messy state of the documentation of many Filipinos, the different subgroups among Chinese Filipinos, and differences between Pogos’ and Beijing’s efforts to influence officialdom.

Then again, knowing that China can be quite “devious” (ika nga ni Defense Sec Gibo), it wouldn’t surprise if POGOs turned out to be of a piece with the would-be superpower’s long-term master plan. About time we shut them down.

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Read also
Aside from Bamban mayor, indict bribes of China spies by Jarius Bondoc
Mayor Alice Guo POGO controversy exposes need for electoral reform by CMFR

Senate Prez Chiz

Surprise, surprise, Sen. Bato got his 4th PDEA hearing last Monday (so much for my fearless forecast), and former LizaMarcos-law-partner Paquito Ochoa made an appearance and denied having anything to do with the aborted PDEA investigation. Short and sweet.

Then came the contempt citations on Jonathan Morales and Erik Santiago, which didn’t really surprise — napuno finally ang salop nina Bato at Jinggoy. What was curious was Chiz dropping in with a weird rather out-of-place smile on his face, which only made sense later in the day when I heard of the plenary session and caught him delivering his first speech as Senate Prez. Kaya pala. What a coup.

Of course my first thought was, the Palace must be pleased: the first couple was surely unhappy that Migs allowed the PDEA hearings at all, and that the chacha train has yet to get moving.

But Chiz says tuloytuloy ang PDEA probe, and he is still against chacha and does not plan to change his position.

And then again, what’s left ba for Bato to probe? The alleged threats to harm Morales? But the source Erik Santiago has already testified that he was lying, kathang isip lang yung kuwento niyang pinapatahimik ni Liza Marcos si Morales via a James Kumar who has already issued a statement denying it all. I guess Bato is simply leaving no bato unturned in case he gets lucky and some legit info turns up?

As for charter change, Migs has pointed out that not all the senators who voted for Chiz are also anti-chacha. “Strange bedfellows” indeed.

But knowing Chiz, a very public figure (more so since Heart entered his life) who’s impressively smart, sharp, and politically savvy, I can believe that the coup was on his own initiative, and, even, that he has a game plan in aid of restoring the independence of the Senate.  The shining example, of course, is 1991 when, against President Cory’s wishes, the Senate led by Jovito Salonga voted against the US bases.

“The proposed treaty is overwhelmingly one-sided and lopsided in favor of the United States,” said Sen. Agapito Aquino, the president’s brother-in-law, who voted against the treaty.

“I love my country more than I love my president,” he said. https://www.latimes.com/archives/

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“Orocan moments” by Ana Marie Pamintuan
“The beheading” by Lito Banayo

kwentong kokeyn… itutuloy?

senator bato says he wants a fourth hearing — isa-subpoena na niya si paquito ochoa, executive secretary ni PNoy in 2012, na dalawang beses nang naipatawag ngunit busy daw noong una, at may covid naman nitong ikalawa.

ang tanong, can sen bato be stopped from holding one more hearing?

at the last one, senators jinggoy and chiz and senate prez migs mismo were quite obviously unhappy that the hearings were being used as platform for a jonathan morales who insists that the PDEA document attributed to him that someone leaked to the hitad vlogger is authentic. but jinggoy chiz and migs insist right back that morales is not exactly a credible source, given his history, which decidedly does not inspire confidence that he’s telling the truth at any time. parang he has his own agenda, the way he’s been pandering to both the senate and the hitad vlogger.  and really, what does jinggoy’s credibility (or lack of it) have to do with morales’s credibility as reluctant whistleblower. loose cannons get boring, too.

Dela Rosa is persistent. He said that as chairman of the Senate committee on public order, he has the prerogative on the matter, including scheduling one more hearing next week.

“I am asking my colleagues and the Senate President that even though it’s just a motu propio investigation, [allow me] one more time, it will only be one more,” he said. https://www.rappler.com/philippines/bato-dela-rosa

my fearless forecast, given the political temper of the times: mananaig ang interes ng nakaupo. no 4th hearing.

of course i’m half-hoping i’m wrong, na sen bato prevails, and exec.sec ochoa either shows up, or does not. #abangan

Kaabang-abang ang next episodes… kuwentong Tsina at kuwentong kokeyn

KUWENTONG TSINA

May 7 Tuesday, China released an audio recording of a Jan 2024 phone conversation between some Chinese official and Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos (AFP Western Command) where Carlos is supposed to have agreed on a new way of managing tensions over Ayungin Shoal.  Also, China was supposedly assured that Defense Sec Gibo Teodoro, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, and AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner “all concurred with the plan”.

Say pa ng China, they released the video not to embarrass the Philippines but to prove that they were not lying about a recent agreement. One that China alleges was unilaterally abandoned by the Philippines “for no good reason.” 

May 8 Wednesday, Defense Sec. Gibo Teodoro response was to cast doubt on the recording, citing the Chinese government’s “propensity for misinformation.” And surprise surprise, Vice Admiral Carlos has gone on “personal leave” and cannot be reached for confirmation. And we are all supposed to just be upset, like Sec Gibo, that the Chinese have apparently violated our Anti-Wire Tapping Law?

It would be good to know if there was such a conversation or not.  If there was not, why was Vice Admiral Carlos allowed (made?) to go on leave instead of being ordered to tell the truth and assisted in disputing the authenticity of the audio recording?  Is it possible that there was such a conversation and Gibo et al knew about it but are resolved to deny it because at the time they were hedging their bets in case the US-Japan-Ph alliance didn’t pull through?  Could this be our version of gray tactics?  Sino ba talaga ang na-embarrass?  Meron bang na-embarrass?  All is fair in love and war? Kaabang-abang.

KUWENTONG KOKEYN

Circa 2012 pa ang dokumentong nakahain — authentic nga ba, tulad ng say ni Sen. Bato?  Mapapa-appear kaya niya sa senate hearing si dating executive secretary Paquito Ochoa na sinasabing siyang nagpahinto ng napipintong PDEA investigation of BBM noong 2012 dahil law partners sila ni Liza Marcos once upon a time? Meron bang basis ang proposed investigation other than info from the two maids whom Maricel Soriano dismissed for theft in 2011?

Pero sabihin pa natin, for the sake of argument, na totoo lahat iyon 12 years ago. What makes DDS vloggers think that it is reasonable to conclude without evidence that BBM is presently a drug addict and therefore not competent to run government?  Doesn’t it remind of Duterte times when he seemed really slow and stumbling and ill or on fentanyl, but when we asked to be assured about his health and whether he was still up to the job, we were ignored? Kesyo confidential daw ang medical records ng presidente, or something like that? Nothing has changed, guys. Tiis muna. Hysterics don’t work.

Pero kaabang-abang pa rin kung totoong ire-reveal na ng hitad na vlogger ang source(s?) niya of leaked documents and phone conversations. Wire-tapping, anyone?