AUTHORITIES arrested 29 foreign nationals in a raid conducted in an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (Pogo) hub in Silang, Cavite.
A report from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) stated that the raid was conducted following a tip from a concerned individual about suspicious activity at a private resort.
The PAOCC, together with the elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI), discovered a guerilla-type Pogo inside the resort, which resulted in the arrest of six Myanmar nationals and 22 Chinese.
The suspects were using laptops and mobile internet in their alleged scamming operation instead of desktops and internet routers to avoid detection.
The Bureau of Immigration issued a mission order against the said foreign nationals.
The PAOCC, together with the PNP and other law enforcement agencies, has intensified its operations against illegal Pogos following their ban in the country as ordered by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
In an interview, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said 2,000 more Pogo workers are expected to be arrested in the coming days.
“As promised, di naman namin sila tatantanan. Ako, bilang SILG, siyempre sariling lalawigan ko uunahin ko, so nakahuli na kami last week sa Parañaque, then nakahuli sa Cavite, may mahuhuli pa another 2,000 kami expected in the next few days mahuli pa din namin. Identified na namin yung sites,” Remulla said.
(As promised, we will not back down. I, as the SILG, of course, will prioritize my own province. So, we already made arrests last week in Parañaque, then in Cavite, and we are expecting to catch another 2,000 in the next few days. We have already identified the sites.) (TPM/SunStar Philippines)