{"id":777031549,"date":"2025-09-11T08:49:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T11:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777031549"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:15:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:15:43","slug":"philippine-officials-alleged-to-have-laundered-18-3m-through-casinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-officials-alleged-to-have-laundered-18-3m-through-casinos","title":{"rendered":"Philippine officials alleged to have laundered $18.3m through casinos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DPWH officials allegedly funnelled billions in illicit funds through casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Senate president pro tempore Panfilo Lacson<\/strong> has claimed to have exposed a major money laundering scheme involving former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials. Dubbed the \u201cBulacan Group of Contractors\u201d or \u201cBGC Boys,\u201d they allegedly laundered over PHP1bn (US$18.3m) through 13 casinos<\/strong> in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Pampanga between 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacson says Brice Ericson Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, Henry Alcantara, Arjay Domasig, and contractor Edrick San Diego used aliases and fake identification to conduct casino transactions. They reportedly converted cash into casino chips, played minimally, and cashed out to disguise illicit funds as gambling winnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not mere luck. It bears the hallmarks of a money laundering scheme,\u201d Lacson said, citing documents from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Senate
Panfilo Lacson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The group allegedly racked up PHP950m (US$17.4m) in casino losses. The funds were reportedly linked to flood control projects in Bulacan, where funds allocated for infrastructure failed to prevent flooding. Investigations uncovered rigged bidding, falsified reports, and non-existent or substandard projects, such as one PHP92.58m (US$1.7m) project falsely reported as 46 per cent complete days after approval. Despite probes, some officials continued casino visits, with one recorded on September 1, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacson has submitted the officials\u2019 names and aliases to the Anti-Money Laundering Council<\/strong> (AMLC), calling for asset freezes and prosecution under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which covers casinos. The allegations have disrupted a Senate hearing on online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Malaysia police arrest 34 in raid on alleged online gambling syndicate<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DPWH officials allegedly funnelled billions in illicit funds through casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777031554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson has exposed an alleged PHP1bn (US$18.3m) money laundering scheme involving former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials, dubbed the \"Bulacan Group of Contractors.\" They reportedly utilized 13 casinos in the Philippines between 2023 and 2025 to convert illicit funds from fraudulent infrastructure projects into purported gambling winnings. Lacson has submitted evidence to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), calling for asset freezes and prosecution under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, highlighting significant regulatory and governance failures within the iGaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Panfilo Lacson, Brice Ericson Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, Henry Alcantara, Arjay Domasig, Edrick San Diego, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), Bulacan Group of Contractors","focusai_location":"The Philippines, Metro Manila, Cebu, Pampanga, Bulacan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR's Oversight Role","query":"What specific deficiencies in PAGCOR's regulatory oversight and casino licensing framework allowed for such a prolonged and large-scale money laundering operation to occur?"},{"label":"Operator Due Diligence","query":"How will the implicated casino operators demonstrate robust AML\/CTF due diligence and transaction monitoring protocols to mitigate regulatory penalties and reputational damage?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[12436,24764,24804],"class_list":["post-777031549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-casinos","tag-money-laundering","tag-the-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031549","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\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777031549"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777031569,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031549\/revisions\/777031569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777031554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777031549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777031549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777031549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}