THE 169 foreign nationals who were detained following a raid on an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) hub in Lapu-Lapu City are facing charges for being undocumented and working in the country without a visa.
The foreign nationals, most of them Chinese nationals, Indonesians and some from Myanmar, were picked up after a joint force of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (Paocc), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and Bureau of Immigration (BI) conducted an operation at the Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, on Aug. 31, 2024.
The immigration officials completed the inquest proceedings on Tuesday, Sept. 3, three days after the foreign nationals were rescued from a suspected Pogo hub.
The BI officials, however, refused to divulge more details of what had happened inside and during the inquest proceedings, which lasted five hours and were conducted at the Tourist Garden Hotel, where the illegal Pogo hub was discovered.
As of this writing, officials of the NBI were also conducting another round of inquest proceedings.
In a visit to the Tourist Garden Hotel on Tuesday, SunStar Cebu learned that investigators are still applying for a search warrant to search and seize the digital devices that were possibly used for the illegal operations.
The computers were secured by authorities, pending the issuance of the search warrant.
The inquest was prompted after human trafficking operations were discovered during the raid on Saturday, said NBI 7 Director Rennan Oliva.
Furthermore, investigations will identify and apprehend individuals involved in the illegal human trafficking operation.
Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office had first conducted an inquest on a case of slight illegal detention where three Indonesians escaped from the Pogo hub and filed a complaint on July 21.
This prompted the Indonesian Embassy to request the Philippine government to rescue their citizens from the compound.
The operation led to the discovery by the operatives that more than 100 foreign nationals were involved in an operation of what was believed to be a scam and Pogo-like activities.
On Sept. 1, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan issued a cease and desist order against the compound in Barangay Agus encompassing six corporations, namely, Cyber Internet House Corp., Nanyang Zhongjing Tobacco Corp., Hwa Van Realties Inc., Royal 1 Suwu KTV Corp., and Asean Gufeng International Trade Corp.
The foreign nationals will then be transported to Manila, either for detention or deportation. /DPC