{"id":777021071,"date":"2024-11-28T09:20:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T12:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777021071"},"modified":"2026-04-22T03:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:46:53","slug":"cebu-city-finds-no-disguised-offshore-gaming-operators-in-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cebu-city-finds-no-disguised-offshore-gaming-operators-in-checks","title":{"rendered":"Cebu City finds no “disguised” offshore gaming operators in checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia says police have found no irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Cebu City’s mayor, Raymond Alvin Garcia<\/strong>, has said that his government is complying with calls from Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Juanito Victor Remulla<\/strong> to investigate whether offshore gaming operations are disguising themselves<\/a> as legitimate businesses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remulla had told chief executives to regularly check business establishments to ensure that they are not operating as illegal offshore gaming operators. Garcia said Cebu City had already established a task force led by the Cebu City Police Office and that conducted inspections had found no irregularities <\/strong>so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Garcia acknowledged the possibility that some operations might be concealed and emphasised the importance of strengthening intelligence efforts. \u201cWe should strengthen our intelligence gathering with the help of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) director\u00a0Winnie Quidato\u00a0<\/strong>told the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality\u00a0that some offshore gaming operators continue operating in the country disguised as business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to evade the ban issued under\u00a0Executive Order (EO) 74<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big offshore gaming companies that we have raided before or that existed before, we see them breaking down) into smaller groups. Some are even branding themselves now as BPOs,\u201d Quidato told the panel during the last public hearing<\/a> on illegal activities linked to offshore gaming operators. He said he hoped such \u201cguerrilla offshore gaming operators\u201d would not affect \u201cthe good image that BPOs have established in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also:<\/strong> Philippine president says no new law needed following offshore gaming ban<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philippines senator urges DOLE to be proactive in revoking permits for foreign offshore gaming workers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong> has called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) <\/strong>to take proactive measures to cancel alien employment permits (AEPs)<\/strong> issued to offshore gaming workers. During discussions on the DOLE\u2019s proposed budget for 2025, Gatchalian said: \u201cOffshore gaming operators are morphing into something else so they could stay in the country and continue their scamming activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need a very proactive approach to cancel and eventually send these workers to their country of origin and we need the entire government machinery to work together to cut the legal basis for these individuals to stay in the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 5, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order (EO) 74<\/strong>, ordering an immediate ban<\/a> on offshore gaming. The order requires offshore gaming operators and related auxiliary and ancillary services with issued licences to wind up by December 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DOLE reported that it had issued around 15,819 AEPs in 2024<\/strong>. However, since the president\u2019s announcement of the ban, approximately 36,000 AEPs have been revoked. The DOLE said it is collaborating with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to make sure working visas associated with offshore gaming-related activities are terminated, preventing foreign nationals from remaining in the country illegally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia says police have found no irregularities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Philippine authorities are intensifying efforts to enforce the ban on offshore gaming operations, with local governments investigating businesses disguised as BPOs. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission reports that some operators are breaking into smaller groups to evade detection, while the Department of Labor and Employment is proactively revoking alien employment permits for foreign offshore gaming workers.","focusai_entities":"Raymond Alvin Garcia, Juanito Victor Remulla, Winnie Quidato, Sherwin Gatchalian, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Cebu City Police Office, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, Department of Labor and Employment, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police","focusai_location":"The Philippines, Cebu City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.75), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on BPO Sector?","query":"What are the projected economic and reputational impacts of these enforcement actions on the legitimate Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in the Philippines?"},{"label":"Effectiveness of EO 74?","query":"How effective has Executive Order (EO) 74 been in fully eradicating illegal offshore gaming operations, given the reported tactics of operators disguising themselves as BPOs?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[20326,4138],"class_list":["post-777021071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021071","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=777021071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777021080,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021071\/revisions\/777021080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777021071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777021071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777021071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}