PAOCC claims offshore gaming operators trying to avoid detecction in the Philippines
PAOCC director Winnie Quidato says some operators are disguising themselves as business process outsourcing companies.
The Philippines.- Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) director Winnie Quidato has told the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality that some offshore gaming operators continue operating in the country disguised as business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to evade the ban issued under Executive Order (EO) 74.
“The big offshore gaming companies that we have raided before or that existed before, we see them breaking down) into smaller groups. Some are even branding themselves now as BPOs,” Quidato told the panel during the last public hearing on illegal activities linked to offshore gaming operators. He said he hoped such “guerrilla offshore gaming operators” would not affect “the good image that BPOs have established in the country.”
See also: Philippine president says no new law needed following offshore gaming ban
Senator Risa Hontiveros also emphasised the importance of this “because BPOs, like the remittances of our OFWs, BPOs are actually one of the top revenue generators for the government and for the economy.”
Quidato said that while previously thousands of employees may have worked at a single offshore gaming operator, workers were now in smaller groups of 10 to 20 people per operation. “Just like what we found in Parañaque when we raided the Parañaque group, we discovered that they have occupied 45 houses within the subdivision. That’s what’s happening now. They are breaking down into smaller groups.”
He said that due to enforcement in Luzon, some have started to operate in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. The PAOCC plans to meet with relevant government agencies.
DILG secretary urges Philippine mayors to check for illegal offshore gaming operators
Jesus Crispin Remulla, secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), has called on mayors to regularly check businesses to ensure that they are not operating as illegal offshore gaming operators.
During a Commission on Appointments hearing, Remulla said some illegal offshore gaming operators had applied for permits under the guise of running legitimate businesses such as resorts or restaurants. He said the authority to issue, suspend, or revoke business and occupancy permits was a key tool in combating such illicit activities. Based on the Local Government Code of 1991, a mayor has the power to suspend or revoke licences and permits for any violation of the law.
Remulla noted an incident in Lapu-Lapu City, where an alleged restaurant was exposed as a front for offshore gaming operations.
He said: “The biggest disguise that they [offshore gaming operators] are going through now is that they are applying for resorts and restaurants. So it is in the power of the mayor to visit the establishments and make sure that what is going on is exactly what is intended. It is really up to the mayors when they issue business permits, occupancy permits, they have to inspect the premises and to make sure that what is intended for is happening,” he added.
