Manila 6th district representative Bienvenido Abante Jr has expressed his support for the proposal to ban POGOs in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- Manila 6th district representative and anti-gambling advocate Bienvenido Abante Jr<\/strong> has spoken in support of the proposal to ban POGOs<\/a> in the Philippines. He said POGOs were \u201ca public exhibition and confession of frustration over, and inability to properly address our pitiful national economic condition.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He welcomed the joint statement<\/a> from the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), Makati Business Club (MBC), and Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF). He said this made it clear that businesses see the POGO industry as a liability, not an asset, in the country\u2019s efforts to attract investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Pinoy sa POGO,<\/strong> a Filipino workers association, branded the business groups advocating for the closure of POGOs because as “elitists” and “anti-poor.\u201d According to The Manila Bulletin, Karen Santa Cruz<\/strong>, an officers in the association, which represents over 23,000 Filipino workers, said the business leaders did not care about the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Santa Cruz said the real social cost will be mass unemployment if the government shuts down POGOs and their service providers, which employ thousands of Filipinos as vendors, housekeepers, drivers, cooks, and more. She said the three business groups and the Department of Finance (DoF) mislead and discriminate against legitimate POGOs and service providers who pay taxes and royalties to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group expressed concerns about the welfare of its members and called on president Marcos to help Filipino POGO workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, senator Risa Hontiveros told Abs-Cbn that half of the senate could vote in favour of the bill<\/a> to ban POGOs. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong> has suggested that the Philippines could mitigate the impact of a ban on online gaming<\/a> by growing the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gatchalian noted that POGOs contribute PHP34.68bn<\/strong> a year to the country or 1 per cent of GDP. He said that while this contribution could be considered significant, the impact of a ban could be mitigated by attracting BPO companies<\/strong>, which could take up office space left by gaming operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Manila 6th district representative Bienvenido Abante Jr has expressed his support for the proposal to ban POGOs in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":9114,"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 proposal to ban Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) is gaining traction, with Manila Representative Bienvenido Abante Jr. and major business groups advocating for it, citing POGOs as an economic liability. Conversely, the Pinoy sa POGO workers association warns of mass unemployment and economic hardship for thousands of Filipinos, accusing proponents of being \"elitist\" and overlooking legitimate POGO contributions. Senatorial discussions indicate potential legislative support for the ban, with suggestions to mitigate economic impact through BPO sector growth.","focusai_entities":"Bienvenido Abante Jr, Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Foundation for Economic Freedom, Pinoy sa POGO, Karen Santa Cruz, Department of Finance, Marcos, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian, Abs-Cbn","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila, Makati","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), affiliate_publisher (0.75), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Economic Mitigation Plan?","query":"What specific, actionable strategies is the Philippine government developing to mitigate the projected PHP34.68bn economic impact and potential mass unemployment if POGOs are banned, beyond general BPO growth?"},{"label":"Regulatory Transition Impact?","query":"How will the proposed POGO ban affect existing B2B and B2C licensing agreements, and what transition period or support mechanisms are being considered for legitimate operators and their service providers?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-34900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34900","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34900"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34923,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34900\/revisions\/34923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}