{"id":777009915,"date":"2023-10-05T06:36:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T09:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777009915"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:27:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:27:29","slug":"philippine-police-identify-4039-victims-of-pogo-related-crimes-in-h1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-police-identify-4039-victims-of-pogo-related-crimes-in-h1","title":{"rendered":"Philippine police identify 4,039 victims of POGO-related crimes in H1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Philippine National Police (PNP) said it was necessary to train investigators to build cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent;font-size: revert\">The Philippines.-<strong> The Philippine National Police (PNP) <\/strong>chief general <strong>Benjamin C. Acorda <\/strong>has reported that 4,039 people have been identified as victims of crimes associated with offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in the first half of 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent;font-size: revert\">During a Senate committee hearing on the budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which holds administrative jurisdiction over the PNP, Acorda stressed the need to intensify operations against POGOs and enhance the training of investigators to effectively build cases<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent;font-size: revert\">Acorda said the PNP has been collaborating with PAGCOR and the Department of Justice to monitor POGO-related activities. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian<\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\" style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">, who has filed a resolution advocating for a permanent ban on POGOs, pointed out that numerous POGOs still have licences from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR).<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\" style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">In September, ten out of 18 members from<\/span><strong style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">\u00a0the Committee on Ways and Means<\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\" style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">\u00a0in the Philippine Senate signed\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senate-committee-recommends-shutdown-of-pogos\" target=\"_blank\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\" style=\"background: transparent;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">a report recommending the shutdown of POGOs<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\" style=\"background: transparent;font-size: revert;margin-top: 0pt;margin-bottom: 0pt\">\u00a0within three months.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippine National Police (PNP) said it was necessary to train investigators to build cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine National Police reported over 4,000 victims of POGO-related crimes in H1 2023, prompting calls for intensified operations and enhanced investigative training. Despite a Senate committee's recommendation for a POGO shutdown and a senator's advocacy for a permanent ban, many operators retain licenses from PAGCOR. This highlights ongoing regulatory and enforcement challenges within the Philippine iGaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Philippine National Police (PNP), Benjamin C. Acorda, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.), Department of Justice, Sherwin T. Gatchalian, Senate Committee on Ways and Means","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Licensing Impact","query":"What is the projected timeline for PAGCOR's review of existing POGO licenses, given the Senate's recommendation for a three-month shutdown and the PNP's intensified operations?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Efficacy","query":"How will the enhanced training for PNP investigators specifically improve the efficacy of case building and prosecution against illicit POGO operations, and what metrics will be used to assess this improvement?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[23911,15789],"class_list":["post-777009915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009915","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=777009915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777041201,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009915\/revisions\/777041201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777009915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777009915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777009915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}