{"id":247516,"date":"2020-03-08T07:08:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T11:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247516"},"modified":"2020-03-08T07:08:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T11:08:58","slug":"no-pogo-shutdown-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/08\/no-pogo-shutdown-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"No POGO shutdown: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Panelo maintained that the funds collected from POGOs could be used by the government to address the outbreak of 2019 coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country and raise the monthly salary of nurses and teachers. (PCOO File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has no plan of ordering the closure of all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in the country amid several controversies plaguing the online gaming industry, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Duterte backed the continued operation of POGOs because the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) gave him a \u201cgood\u201d report about the economic benefits from the offshore gaming firms\u2019 transactions, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGanoon pa rin<\/em>\u00a0(His position remains the same). He will not suspend it nor will stop it.\u00a0Ang sabi niya sa akin kahapon, maganda \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0report\u00a0ni<\/em>\u00a0Pagcor.\u00a0Maganda daw \u2018yung\u00a0<\/em>report\u00a0sa kanya.<\/em>\u00a0So okay (He told me yesterday that he received a good report from Pagcor. He said the report was good. So he\u2019s okay with POGO operations),\u201d Panelo told dzIQ.<\/p>\n

Duterte made the stance despite calls aired by some senators to declare POGOs \u201cillegal\u201d due to money laundering, crimes, and other suspicious activities associated with POGOs.<\/p>\n

Amid issues surrounding POGOs, Pagcor has reported that the government was able to collect roughly PHP7 billion from fees and licenses from the offshore gaming companies.<\/p>\n

Panelo maintained that the funds collected from POGOs could be used by the government to address the outbreak of 2019 coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country and raise the monthly salary of nurses and teachers.<\/p>\n

He added that the government can use the tax collections from POGOs \u201cin any undertaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKailangan talaga natin \u2018yung pondo na galing doon. Marami tayong<\/em>\u00a0projects\u00a0na kailangan natin ng pondo<\/em>\u00a0(We really need a fund from collections from POGOs. We need funds for our projects),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the government can implement stricter rules and regulations to avoid repeat of problems caused by POGOs.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Yung mga problema diyan sa<\/em>\u00a0operation,\u00a0iyan eh magagawan ng paraan iyan<\/em>\u00a0(The problems linked to POGO operations can be solved). All you have to do is to implement, establish rules and regulations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Around 60 licensed POGOs are still operating in the country.<\/p>\n

However, there have been persistent calls for Duterte to stop the operation of POGOs due to supposed proliferation of crimes in the country linked to the online gaming industry.<\/p>\n

The government has already imposed a moratorium on new licenses for POGOs, following the issues besetting the offshore gaming firms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has no plan of ordering the closure of all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":246899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247516","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247517,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247516\/revisions\/247517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}