the government would not stop POGO<\/a><\/em><\/strong>s because it needed the revenues they generate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI want it legalised. If they can pass a law about POGO, fine, go ahead. Supervise it by law. We are not justifying it. We are just saying that it is allowed because we need the funds,\u201d Duterte said in a press conference in Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also confirmed that he will not prohibited Chinese nationals working in the POGO industry from entering the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe cannot bar Chinese nationals from entering the country because they allow us to enter China also and even work in Hong Kong,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pressure on Duterte is increasing as more legislators demand a POGO ban. Surigao del Norte Representative, Robert Ace Barbers, joined calls for the shutdown of POGOs last weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to official numbers, there are 60 licensed POGOs in the Philippines under which 218 service providers are currently operating.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President says he is happy to discuss tighter regulations for POGOs but reaffirms they will not be banned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4395,"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 of the Philippines has affirmed that Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) will not be banned, despite increasing legislative pressure due to associated criminal activities. He expressed openness to discussions for tighter regulatory frameworks, citing the government's reliance on POGO-generated revenues. Duterte also confirmed that Chinese nationals working in the POGO industry would not be prohibited from entering the country.","focusai_entities":"Rodrigo Duterte, Salvador Panelo, Robert Ace Barbers","focusai_location":"Philippines, Malaca\u00f1ang, Surigao del Norte, China, Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Regulatory Framework","query":"What specific legislative or executive actions are anticipated to implement 'tighter regulations' for POGOs, and how might these new governance frameworks impact existing B2B\/B2C licensing structures and operational compliance requirements?"},{"label":"Revenue vs. Risk","query":"How does the Philippine government quantitatively balance the GGR\/NGR contributions from POGOs against the documented societal and criminal risks, and what metrics are being considered for future policy adjustments?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,156,158,16333],"tags":[11294,225,128,1205,337],"class_list":["post-4350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-duterte","tag-legislation","tag-philippines","tag-pogo","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350","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=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4374,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions\/4374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}