Philippines’ Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs)<\/strong><\/em>, President Rodrigo Duterte remains convinced they will stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to his spokesman, the government simply needs the revenues that POGOs generate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo told a local radio programme: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe will not suspend it nor will he stop it. He told me the report of the PAGCOR head was good, so OK. We need the funds coming from them\u2026 Now that we have a problem due to the coronavirus, we can get funds from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pressure on Duterte is increasing, however, as more legislators demand a POGO ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surigao del Norte Representative, Robert Ace Barbers, joined calls for the shutdown of POGOs this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We\u2019ve already seen and heard in the news the intended purpose of these POGOs and their workers, engaging in kidnap for ransom, murder, online fraud, tax fraud, illegal gambling, human traffic, prostitution, and money laundering, among others,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“How could PAGCOR be deaf and blind and still insists they need these POGOs for the possible revenue they could contribute to the government coffers? Are they stupid enough to just let go of these \u2018in your face\u2019 transgressions to the Filipino people,” he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Philippines’ President is standing strong on the POGO issue saying the country simply needs the revenues they generate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"President Duterte is maintaining support for Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs) due to their significant revenue contributions, despite increasing legislative and media pressure for a ban. Critics cite widespread criminal activities, including kidnapping, fraud, and money laundering, questioning PAGCOR's oversight and the broader societal costs versus economic benefits.","focusai_entities":"Rodrigo Duterte, Salvador Panelo, PAGCOR, Robert Ace Barbers","focusai_location":"Philippines, Surigao del Norte","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Revenue Impact","query":"What is the estimated GGR and NGR contribution of POGOs to the Philippine economy, and how would a ban impact the national budget and PAGCOR's operational funding?"},{"label":"Regulatory Compliance Efficacy","query":"Given the allegations of widespread criminal activity, what specific governance frameworks and enforcement mechanisms has PAGCOR implemented to ensure POGO compliance with AML, anti-fraud, and human trafficking regulations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,154,158,16333],"tags":[225,128,1205],"class_list":["post-4282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-legislation","tag-philippines","tag-pogo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282","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=4282"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777010509,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions\/777010509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}