{"id":247619,"date":"2020-03-09T23:46:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T03:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247619"},"modified":"2020-03-09T23:46:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T03:46:02","slug":"not-all-pogos-are-bad-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/09\/not-all-pogos-are-bad-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Not all POGOs are bad: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Presidential Chief Legal Counsel and Spokesperson Salvador Panelo at the Impact Challenger in Nonthaburi, Thailand on November 3, 2019. AVITO DALAN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Except for a few involved in illegal activities, not all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) are bad, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPinagpipilitan niyo na yung<\/em>\u00a0POGO\u00a0ay masama. Eh hindi naman masama, ang masama yung mga nago-<\/em>operate\u00a0na iba. E di yun ang tigilin natin<\/em>\u00a0(You are insisting that POGOs are bad. They\u2019re not bad, what\u2019s bad are a few operating illegally. They\u2019re the ones we should stop),\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte has no plan of ordering the closure of all POGOs in the country amid suspicious activities associated with POGOs such as money laundering, prostitution, illegal drug trade, among others.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that Duterte \u201chas enough basis\u201d to decide not to suspend POGOs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President does not decide just like that. He\u2019s a very cautious person. The President, when he makes a decision, it\u2019s a decisive one and he has basis to support his decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) reported that the government was able to collect roughly PHP7 billion from fees and licenses from offshore gaming companies.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the social ills associated with POGOs like prostitution and illegal drugs have been \u201cwith us for the longest time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these issues on illegal practices are addressed by the agencies involved. Customs, Immigration, AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council). They should function very well so that they can stop whatever illegal practices or corruption that are present,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cKumbaga<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s like), you cannot be burning the entire house just because there are so many rats there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo said Duterte still has no plan of ordering the shutdown of all POGOs but his decision could change depending on the circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Duterte] makes a decision on the basis of circumstances prevailing at the time of making that decision when circumstances change, there may be a change of position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heads will roll<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, warned that agencies that failed to do their jobs of prosecuting POGOs with violations could risk being sacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasta merong<\/em>\u00a0illegal practice,\u00a0gawin niyo yung trabaho niyo<\/em>. Prosecute\u00a0niyo, hulihin niyo<\/em>\u00a0otherwise heads will roll\u00a0kung nalaman niya na wala kayong ginawa<\/em>\u00a0(As long as there is illegal practice, do your jobs. Prosecute them, arrest them, otherwise heads will roll if the President finds out you\u2019re not doing anything),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also questioned why critics badly wanted POGO operations stopped despite it providing \u201cfunds to finance projects\u201d of the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala kang pang<\/em>\u00a0finance\u00a0sa mga<\/em>\u00a0projects then failure\u00a0mga<\/em>\u00a0projects mo.\u00a0Pag<\/em>\u00a0failure\u00a0mga<\/em>\u00a0projects\u00a0mo, e di<\/em>\u00a0failure\u00a0ang gobyerno<\/em>\u00a0(If you have money to finance the projects then your projects are a failure. If your projects are a failure, then your government is a failure),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Panelo raised the possibility that POGO tax collections could be used to supplement the government\u2019s response to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country.<\/p>\n

Asked how much would be set aside for Covid-19 response, Panelo said \u201cas much as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, around 60 licensed POGOs continue to operate in the country.<\/p>\n

A moratorium on new licenses for POGOs has been imposed until issues surrounding the operations of online gaming are addressed.<\/p>\n

Panelo assured that POGO workers, who are Chinese nationals, are not receiving \u201cblanket protection\u201d from the government amid the close ties between the Philippines and China.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Except for a few involved in illegal activities, not all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) are bad, Malaca\u00f1ang said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":246983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247619","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\/247619","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=247619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247620,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247619\/revisions\/247620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}