{"id":8946,"date":"2020-08-12T22:56:34","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T22:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=8946"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:48:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:48:27","slug":"less-than-100-pogos-active-during-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/less-than-100-pogos-active-during-lockdown","title":{"rendered":"Less than 100 POGOs active during lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Philippine offshore operators have not been successful in obtaining the necessary permits for foreign workers to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Philippines.- Less than a hundred Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) remain active in the country during the Covid-19 lockdown, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s about half the number of firms active in the Philippines before the Covid-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Labour Secretary Dominique Tutay said in an online forum that \u201cprior to COVID-19, we had more than 200 POGOs operating nationwide particularly in the NCR (National Capital Region). During the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine), if we look at the numbers of POGO establishments, it is less than 100.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lockdown in the Philippines began on March 15. Since then, only a handful of POGOs have been allowed<\/a><\/em><\/strong> to resume operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since lockdown was extended, the DOLE enforced stricter requirements for the issuance of Alien Employment Permits (AEP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

POGOs have little success reincorporating foreign workers<\/a><\/em><\/strong> since it became compulsory to obtain clearance from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor<\/em><\/strong>) when applying for an AEP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines government has also remained firm in its decision not to allow POGOs with outstanding debts with the state or their workers to reopen after lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) says POGOs are due to pay a 5 per cent franchise tax<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, while operators believe they are exempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BIR claims the Philippines government should be collecting up to P20 billion (US$399million) a year in corporate and personal income taxes from POGOs, but last year\u2019s collection only reached about P6 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philippine offshore operators have not been successful in obtaining the necessary permits for foreign workers to return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8948,"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 number of active Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) has halved during the COVID-19 lockdown, primarily due to stringent Alien Employment Permit (AEP) requirements, mandatory Pagcor clearance for foreign workers, and unresolved tax liabilities. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reports less than 100 POGOs remain active, down from over 200, while the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) continues to pursue significant uncollected franchise and income taxes.","focusai_entities":"Department of Labor and Employment, DOLE, Dominique Tutay, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, Pagcor, Bureau of Internal Revenue, BIR","focusai_location":"Philippines, National Capital Region, NCR","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Tax Collection Outlook","query":"What specific legislative or enforcement actions are anticipated from the Philippine government to resolve the P20 billion tax dispute with POGOs and ensure future revenue collection?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How might the Department of Labor and Employment and Pagcor further evolve their Alien Employment Permit and operational clearance frameworks to balance regulatory oversight with industry viability for offshore gaming?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16333],"tags":[405,128,15789],"class_list":["post-8946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-philippines","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8946","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777010524,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8946\/revisions\/777010524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}