Philippines’ Marcos takes big stick taken to POGO scams

The move comes amid allegations raised in a senate inquiry into POGOs that a Chinese-origin Philippines mayor with links to scam centres was a Chinese spy

Ferdinand Marcos Jr delivers his state of the nation address. Picture: Getty Images

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has outlawed hundreds of Chinese-run offshore gaming operations following a series of scandals linking them to Southeast Asia-wide scam centres and human trafficking rings.

Mr Marcos announced a total ban on POGOs – as the operations are known locally – during his third state of the nation address late on Monday, earning a standing ovation from some parliamentarians, saying the move would “solve a lot of problems”.

“Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laun­dering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder,” Mr Marcos said towards the end of his televised address. “The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.

“Effective today, all POGOs are banned. I hereby instruct Pagcor to wind down and cease the operations of POGOs by the end of the year,” he said, referring to the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp regulator, which has alleged more than 250 operators have been operating unlicensed.

POGOs flourished under his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who encouraged Chinese investment in The Philippines, and saw the online gaming boom as a handy source of government revenue.

Gambling is banned in China but The Philippines’ industry attracted billions of dollars in Chinese revenue, and – at one time – more than 100,000 Chinese workers.

Under the Marcos administration, however, POGOs have come to symbolise the perils of Chinese investment, especially so amid heightened tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

Mr Marcos also addressed his country’s maritime conflict with China, saying The Philippines “cannot yield” in those disputes but would continue to “find ways to de-escalate tensions in contested areas … without compromising our position and our principles”.

Many Philippines’ POGOs have been found to be deeply linked to the regional scamdemic, and associated illicit activities including human trafficking, prompting even China’s embassy in Manila to call for them to be banned.

An ongoing investigation by The Australian found scam factories operating out of The Philippines in recent years were specifically targeting Australians. Many used trafficked and enslaved workers who were then trained in how to get around Australian banking regulations and lure Australian targets, and forced to scam them.

Widespread concerns over POGOs has prompted a Philippines’ Senate inquiry this year that has begun to unravel the extent of their illegal activity.

Among the most sensational allegations unearthed in that inquiry are those linking a Philippines mayor with ethnic Chinese origins, Alice Guo, with POGOs in her province of Tarlac found to be involved in scamming and human trafficking.

Ms Guo, whose business partners are alleged to include Chinese fugitives, has even been accused of spying for Beijing after her fingerprints were found to match those of a Chinese nat­ional who entered the Philippines as a teenager. She has denied the claims.

Some security analysts say Ms Guo is more likely to have acted as a front for Chinese business interests than as a state spy, and a bigger security concern is the extent to which Pogos had embedded themselves within The Philippines’ political and economic system.

Ms Guo’s bank accounts have been frozen by The Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council on suspicion they were used to launder “dirty money” from scamming activity, and she has been ordered to answer questions before the inquiry.

Her failure to appear prompted the Supreme Court this month to issue a warrant for her arrest though she has so far evaded police capture and is believed to have gone into hiding.

US Institute of Peace researcher Jason Tower, a regional expert in scam centres, told The Australian the POGO ban was a “welcome move as the region grapples with a growing crisis related to forced labour scamming” though there weee significant concerns that many of the Chinese-origin crime groups working out of the POGOs would now likely relocate their operations to other parts of the region.“This pattern has played out repeatedly over the past decade.”