A renewed crackdown on the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) industry following a spate of recent kidnapping cases will include a focus on ensuring all POGO workers are fully vetted before entering the country, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Tuesday.
According to a report by Philippine News Agency, PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr believes conducting complete and proper checks on the visas and paperwork of such workers is a key step forward in providing a better business climate.
“With the crackdown, what we are doing with undocumented, overstaying, expired visa or working permits of POGO workers, it will soon give our country a better business climate since part of the requirement for foreign workers are clearances that they are not wanted or facing any criminal charges in their country, and that they will be required to obtain National Police Clearances and NBI clearances,” he said.
“In the same manner, POGO and other foreign nationals working here must have a monitoring mechanism to ensure that they are not violating our laws with impunity.”
As reported by IAG, multiple government agencies including the PNP and gaming regulator PAGCOR met last week to solidify a new inter-agency collaboration aimed at stamping out “illegal POGO-related crimes” following reports of an increase in kidnappings linked to online gaming operators.
PAGCOR chief Alejandro Tengco has also warned that failure to address issues of kidnapping and human trafficking could see the entire POGO industry wound down.
Azurin said Tuesday that nine of the 17 POGO-related kidnapping cases reported since January have been solved with one fully cleared and the remaining seven under investigation.
