{"id":777036226,"date":"2025-12-17T11:40:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T14:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777036226"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:52:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:52:47","slug":"philippine-police-to-step-up-border-patrols-against-illegal-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-police-to-step-up-border-patrols-against-illegal-pogos","title":{"rendered":"Philippine police to step up border patrols against illegal gaming operators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reports emerged that criminal syndicates were attempting to relocate operations and recruit victims through illegal travel routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The government has directed police to step up patrols and intelligence operations against unlicensed gambling operator in coastal and border areas after reports of attempts to relocate operations and move victims of trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jose Melencio Nartatez, the acting chief of the Philippine National Police said sea routes, including from Palawan to Sabah and overland travel to Malaysia, were being exploited to transport trafficking victims to places such as Myawaddy, Myanmar, or Phnom Penh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cWe are working with the intelligence community and our foreign counterparts in relation to this information. But I have already instructed concerned police offices to intensify patrols along backdoor routes that may be exploited by syndicates to continue their illegal POGO operations.\u201d<\/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> Philippine president signs ‘Anti-POGO Act’<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reports emerged that criminal syndicates were attempting to relocate operations and recruit victims through illegal travel routes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":16426,"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 government has directed its police force to intensify patrols and intelligence operations against unlicensed gambling operators (POGOs) and human trafficking syndicates. This action follows reports of criminal groups attempting to relocate illegal operations and trafficking victims via sea and land routes to other Southeast Asian nations. The Philippine National Police is collaborating with international intelligence communities to counter these illicit activities.","focusai_entities":"Jose Melencio Nartatez, Philippine National Police","focusai_location":"Philippines, Palawan, Sabah, Malaysia, Myawaddy, Myanmar, Phnom Penh, Cambodia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regional Enforcement Impact","query":"What specific cross-border intelligence sharing and enforcement mechanisms are being implemented with Malaysia, Myanmar, and Cambodia to interdict these transnational criminal operations?"},{"label":"POGO Sector Outlook","query":"How will the intensified crackdown on illegal POGOs and associated human trafficking affect the long-term viability and regulatory framework for legitimate iGaming operators in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[20326,128,15789],"class_list":["post-777036226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling","tag-philippines","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777036226","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\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777036226"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777036226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777036241,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777036226\/revisions\/777036241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777036226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777036226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777036226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}