{"id":12195,"date":"2020-11-29T16:44:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T16:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=12195"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:40:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:40:40","slug":"new-bill-seeks-further-control-over-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-bill-seeks-further-control-over-pogos","title":{"rendered":"New bill seeks further control over POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The bill aims to subject digital platforms that exploit women and children to human trafficking rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- A new bill has been introduced in the Senate aiming to require the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (<strong><em>PAGCOR<\/em><\/strong>) to keep tighter control over Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) activity to prevent human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A series of <strong><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pogos-linked-human-trafficking\" target=\"_blank\">Senate committee investigations<\/a><\/em><\/strong> has revealed that Chinese women were being trafficked into the Philippines to work for Chinese POGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response, senator Risa Hontiveros has filed Senate Bill No. 1929, which would demand PAGCOR scrutinise POGO activities under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to The Inquirer, Hontiveros said: \u201cThe rise of POGOs has been found to increase the vulnerability to trafficking and prostitution of our own women, our own girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The measure would expand the definition of trafficking in persons to include exploitation by online operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If approved, the bill would impose penalties on private firms such as internet service providers, financial intermediaries and transport services, when they knowingly allow the use of their facilities and services for the purposes of human trafficking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bill aims to subject digital platforms that exploit women and children to human trafficking rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A new Philippine Senate bill, SB No. 1929, seeks to mandate PAGCOR to intensify oversight of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to combat human trafficking, following investigations revealing the trafficking of Chinese women for POGO employment. The proposed legislation expands the definition of trafficking to include online exploitation and would impose penalties on ancillary service providers knowingly facilitating such activities.","focusai_entities":"Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, PAGCOR, Philippine offshore gaming operator, POGO, Risa Hontiveros, The Inquirer","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.85), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Regulatory Impact","query":"What specific enhancements to PAGCOR's regulatory framework and enforcement capabilities are anticipated to ensure POGO compliance with the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, and what are the projected timelines for implementation?"},{"label":"Ancillary Services Liability","query":"How will 'knowingly allow' be defined and enforced for internet service providers and financial intermediaries, and what due diligence standards will be expected to mitigate their liability under Senate Bill No. 1929?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16333],"tags":[225,128,15789],"class_list":["post-12195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-legislation","tag-philippines","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12195"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777010510,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12195\/revisions\/777010510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}