THE National Bureau of Investigation Central Visayas (NBI 7) has requested the Bureau of Immigration, and the embassy concerned to verify the identities of three Indonesian nationals whose passports were found inside one of the vaults recovered from the alleged Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) hub inside the Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City.
Lawyer Rennan Augustus Oliva, head of NBI 7, stated that the three Indonesian nationals were not among the foreigners apprehended during the entrapment operation at the said hotel on August 31.
As a result, Oliva wants to investigate whether the foreigners are still in Cebu.
"We are in the process of requesting the Bureau of Immigration to check as to their status as well as coordination with the Indonesian embassy," Oliva said on Friday, September 27, 2024.
He declined to reveal the names of the individuals being sought.
During the preliminary investigation, the arrested foreigners disclosed that upon arriving in the country, their passports were confiscated by their Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation (Pogo) employers, who allegedly demanded $2,000 from them for the return of their documents.
Meanwhile, the 241 cellular phones that were
recovered from one of the vaults will undergo further investigation.
Lawyer Wenceslao Galendez, the special investigator for the case, expressed suspicion that these phones may still contain proceeds or other financial records.
"We believe they secure that cellphones inside the vault because it contains vital information not just information, but it may contain proceeds of their illegal activities in a form of an e-wallet or the local remittances that we have here in the country," Galendez said on Friday, September 27, 2024.
"It's like when they scam somebody, they use that particular device and that particular device when the money is transferred there, they will harvest it to another device...so from one account they transfer it to another account," he added.
To obtain more information from the evidence, the office is awaiting a warrant of disclosure to begin unlocking the phones.
They are also coordinating with remittance centers that may help match the phone numbers used in these devices to any money transactions. (ANV)