{"id":227429,"date":"2019-08-19T19:34:12","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T23:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=227429"},"modified":"2019-08-19T19:34:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T23:34:12","slug":"prrd-not-worried-about-chinese-pogos-near-military-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/19\/prrd-not-worried-about-chinese-pogos-near-military-camps\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD not worried about Chinese POGOs near military camps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gives his message as he stands as one of the principal sponsors in the wedding of First Lieutenant Jan Tabaculde and First Lieutenant Kerlyn Asuncion at St. Ignatius de Loyola Cathedral in Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo in Quezon City on June 1, 2019. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte is not worried about the presence of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) near military camps, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorezana earlier backed the proposal to place the Chinese POGOs in a hub away from military camps and other vital installations to allay fears of espionage.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the logic of what they were saying, I don\u2019t think he is that worried,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a cable television interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said yesterday\u00a0na magaling tayo sa ating<\/em>\u00a0(we are good at our own) intelligence gathering,\u00a0marami na tayong instrumento<\/em>\u00a0(we have a lot of instruments), we can do it also,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo noted that Duterte believes Chinese workers could still spy on the military even if they were placed away for their bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand the concern of Secretary Lorenzana, he is a military man. And the President and I were talking about it yesterday and he was saying that\u2014you know, you don\u2019t even have to be near any military camp if you want to gather intelligence,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said that – concerning the high-tech now – even if they are far away from China, if they want to spy us, they can. And in fact, all countries as he correctly said are spying on each other,\u00a0natural lang iyon eh<\/em>\u00a0(that\u2019s just natural),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, said whether the Chinese POGOs are far from military bases or not, it will be the security officials and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Pagcor and the security officials can meet and agree,\u00a0para masagot natin iyong<\/em>\u00a0(to answer) security concerns\u00a0na binibigay ni<\/em>\u00a0(given by) Secretary Lorenzana,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He said National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. believes that knowing where the Chinese POGOs are is better to be able to keep watch over them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked with him and he said, \u2018actually,\u00a0mabuti nga alam natin kung nasaan sila<\/em>\u00a0(it\u2019s better that we know where they are).\u2019 What is important is we know where they are,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKasi kapag malapit lang sila, mababantayan mo sila<\/em>\u00a0(Because if they\u2019re close, we can monitor them); but at the same time\u00a0puwede rin naman na mababantayan tayo<\/em>\u00a0(they can also monitor us). So, it works both ways,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said since they are operating legally, the government continues to allow their operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, right now, it\u2019s not illegal eh.\u00a0Kaya iyon ang problema<\/em>\u00a0(that\u2019s why thats the problem), China is saying\u00a0ihinto natin, pero hindi naman<\/em>\u00a0illegal\u00a0sa atin iyan eh<\/em>\u00a0(we should stop it but it\u2019s not illegal). So, I guess, we have to do what is being done now, we are allowing it,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, stressed the importance of POGOs as a \u201clegitimate revenue-making\u201d project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s very important, we need money, revenue, that\u2019s legitimate revenue making project. We are not worried about the security that they are posing to us.\u00a0Eh, kaya naman daw natin sabi ni Presidente na malaman kung ano ang gusto nilang gawin sa atin<\/em>\u00a0(We have the ability to find out what they want to do to us),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte is not worried about the presence of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) near military camps, Malaca\u00f1ang …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":217214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227433,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227429\/revisions\/227433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}