Senate panel to wrap up POGO probe next week

By Wilnard Bacelonia, Philippine News Agency

FILE: ANTI-POGO OPS. Personnel from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police – Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), and Bureau of Immigration (BI) raid an alleged scam hub in Bagac, Bataan on Oct. 31, 2024. (PNA photo by Yancy Lim)

MANILA – After 19 months and 15 hearings, the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality is now set to conclude its investigation on alleged criminal activities and irregularities linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).

Panel chair Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros said Thursday that they have set the 16th and last hearing on Nov. 26 to tackle new information on reported spying activities by the Chinese government.

The panel started the public hearings on April 19, 2023.

“May bagong impormasyon po tayong nakalap, lalo na sa pagkakaroon ng mga espiya ng Tsina dito sa Pilipinas sa pamamagitan ng mga POGO (We have gathered new information, especially on China having spies here in the Philippines through POGOs),” Hontiveros said at the regular Kapihan sa Senado.

“Sa next hearing, ilalahad po natin yung mga reporma sa batas na kailangan isulong dito sa Senado dahil sa napakaraming iregularidad at policy gaps na nakita natin sa pagkalat ng POGO at ng mga kaakibat nitong krimen (In the next hearing, we will present the legislative reforms that need to be pushed here in the Senate due to a lot of irregularities and policy gaps that we have seen in the spread of POGO and its related crimes),” she added.

Hontiveros said among the reforms the panel will recommend is to tighten the process of acquiring birth certificates to prevent a repeat of the case of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo.

Other recommendations include the government response to POGO victim-survivors and displaced workers, as well as how to prevent agrarian reform lands from being used for non-agricultural purposes like the case of the raided POGO in Porac, Pampanga, she added.

Hontiveros, meanwhile, confirmed that Guo will still be required to attend the last hearing.