The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) conducted an inter-agency raid on an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Cebu’s Lapu-lapu City, Mactan Island, where they took over a hundred foreign nationals under custody on Saturday, August 31.
The PAOCC, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) of Central Visayas, and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) raided the Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus upon the request of the Indonesian embassy, which appealed for the rescue of eight of their citizens in the scam farm.
Law enforcement found 162 foreign nationals employed in the alleged POGO hub, including 83 Chinese nationals, 70 Indonesian nationals, two Taiwanese nationals, six Burmese nationals, and one Malaysian national. There were also five Filipino workers.
Only six of the eight Indonesians sought were saved.
“All foreign nationals will be brought to Manila to face inquest proceedings for violation of immigration laws,” PAOCC told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Before applying for a warrant to search computer data, authorities will draw up an inventory of the property.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco suggested filing charges against the owner of the resort for taking in “illegal aliens.”
This is the first POGO hub raid in Cebu since the President proclaimed all POGOs in the country banned during his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), as the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) claimed in July that there were no active POGOs in the province.
