Risa Hontiveros<\/strong> also emphasised the importance of this “because BPOs, like the remittances of our OFWs, BPOs are actually one of the top revenue generators for the government and for the economy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nQuidato said that while previously thousands of employees may have worked at a single offshore gaming operator, workers were now in smaller groups of 10 to 20 people per operation. “Just like what we found in Para\u00f1aque when we raided the Para\u00f1aque group,\u00a0we discovered that they have occupied 45 houses within the subdivision. That’s what’s happening now. They are breaking down into smaller groups.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that due to enforcement in Luzon, some have started to operate in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. The PAOCC plans to meet with relevant government agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DILG secretary urges Philippine mayors to check for illegal offshore gaming operators<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Jesus Crispin Remulla<\/strong>, secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), has called on mayors to regularly check businesses to ensure that they are not operating as illegal offshore gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDuring a Commission on Appointments hearing, Remulla said some illegal offshore gaming operators had applied for permits under the guise of running legitimate businesses such as resorts or restaurants. He said the authority to issue, suspend, or revoke business and occupancy permits was a key tool in combating such illicit activities. Based on the Local Government Code of 1991, a mayor has the power to suspend or revoke licences and permits for any violation of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remulla noted an incident in Lapu-Lapu City, where an alleged restaurant was exposed as a front for offshore gaming operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cThe biggest disguise that they [offshore gaming operators] are going through now is that they are applying for resorts and restaurants. So it is in the power of the mayor to visit the establishments and make sure that what is going on is exactly what is intended. It is really up to the mayors when they issue business permits, occupancy permits, they have to inspect the premises and to make sure that what is intended for is happening,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PAOCC director Winnie Quidato says some operators are disguising themselves as business process outsourcing companies.<\/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 Philippine Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) reports that illegal offshore gaming operators (POGOs) are evading Executive Order 74 by masquerading as legitimate business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, resorts, or restaurants. These illicit operations are fragmenting into smaller groups and relocating to regions like Visayas and Mindanao to circumvent enforcement, posing significant challenges for regulatory bodies and local government units.","focusai_entities":"Winnie Quidato, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, PAOCC, Risa Hontiveros, Jesus Crispin Remulla, Department of the Interior and Local Government, DILG","focusai_location":"Philippines, Para\u00f1aque, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Lapu-Lapu City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Evasion Tactics","query":"What specific technological or operational countermeasures are PAOCC and DILG developing to detect and dismantle these increasingly fragmented and disguised illegal offshore gaming operations?"},{"label":"Local Government Authority","query":"How will the DILG ensure consistent application of mayoral powers under the Local Government Code of 1991 across all municipalities to effectively combat the proliferation of disguised POGOs?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,158,16333],"tags":[4138],"class_list":["post-777021019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021019","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=777021019"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777021064,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021019\/revisions\/777021064"}],"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=777021019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777021019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777021019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}