{"id":777020413,"date":"2024-11-04T09:28:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T12:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777020413"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:33:24","slug":"paocc-criticises-raid-on-manila-offshore-gaming-and-scam-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/paocc-criticises-raid-on-manila-offshore-gaming-and-scam-operator","title":{"rendered":"PAOCC criticises raid on Manila offshore gaming and scam operator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said suspects were reportedly released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- Amid a situation that&#8217;s not entirely clear, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) has criticised the way a raid was conducted on an illegal offshore gambling and scam operator in Ermita, Manila. It said the operation was flawed because foreign suspects arrested during the raid were later reportedly released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) led the operation at the 40-storey Century Peak Tower on October 29. Manila&#8217;s mayor <strong>Honey Lacuna<\/strong> was informed as the operation commenced but the PAOCC said it was not consulted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement released on Saturday (November 2), the PAOCC said: &#8220;The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission was not part of the raid that was spearheaded by the PNP NCRPO (National Capital Region Police Office) and the PNP ACG. We were never consulted nor informed regarding this operation. We never release any foreign nationals caught in offshore gaming operations.&#8221; Additionally, the PAOCC urged, &#8220;Please do not associate PAOCC with flawed operations.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It added: &#8220;Moreover, we never said that the said raided offshore gaming operator is the mother of all offshore gaming operators. As aforementioned that we had nothing to do with this operation, thus we will not release any statement regarding its investigation.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, The PNP-ACG said the raid was conducted in collaboration with the Manila Police District \u2013 District Mobile Force Battalion, the Securities and Exchange Commission and PAGCOR, and that 69 people were taken into custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The raid occurred two days before an operation conducted by the PAOCC, led by undersecretary Gilbert Cruz, along with the PNP Special Action Force and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, at <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/illegal-gambling-in-the-philippines-over-400-arrested\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Central One Bataan PH<\/a>, at CentroPark in Bagac, Bataan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said suspects were reportedly released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21187,"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 Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) has criticized a recent raid on an illegal offshore gambling and scam operator in Ermita, Manila, citing procedural flaws and the reported release of foreign suspects. PAOCC disassociated itself from the operation, which was led by the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) in collaboration with other agencies including PAGCOR, highlighting inter-agency coordination challenges in combating illicit iGaming activities.","focusai_entities":"Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, Manila Police District \u2013 District Mobile Force Battalion, Securities and Exchange Commission, PAGCOR, PNP NCRPO, PNP Special Action Force, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Honey Lacuna, Gilbert Cruz","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila, Ermita, Bagac, Bataan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Inter-agency Coordination Impact","query":"What specific governance frameworks are being reviewed or implemented to enhance inter-agency coordination and prevent future procedural discrepancies in raids against illegal iGaming operators in the Philippines?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Efficacy","query":"How will the reported release of foreign suspects from an illegal offshore gambling operation impact the perceived efficacy of regulatory enforcement and the broader anti-money laundering efforts in the Philippine iGaming sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,158,16333],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777020413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020413","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=777020413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777020417,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020413\/revisions\/777020417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777020413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777020413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777020413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}