The Chinese Embassy in Manila has praised cooperation measures between Chinese and Philippines law enforcement agencies after announcing on Saturday that 36 more Chinese POGO workers have been deported.
The workers were, according to a report by Philippines News Agency, linked to an August raid by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on an illegal offshore gaming operation in Pasay City.
An initial batch of POGO workers uncovered during that raid were deported on 22 September followed by this latest group on Friday, with the Embassy having issued each of them travel documents at the request of the PAOCC.
In a statement, the Embassy said, “This is the latest step in China-Philippine law enforcement cooperation against POGOs.
“The Chinese Embassy will continue its support in China-Philippine law enforcement cooperation to safeguard healthy social economic and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.”
The Embassy had earlier last week issued a separate statement in which it called on the Philippines to “take strong measures to crack down on crimes related to POGOs and root out the social ills in a sweeping manner.”
Reiterating its opposition to all forms of gambling and encouraging further cooperation from the Philippines government in ensuring Chinese citizens did not gamble, the statement continued, “In recent years, the law enforcement agencies of China and the Philippines have maintained good communication and coordination, jointly carried out operations to severely crack down on cross-border gambling, telecommunications and online fraud with tangible results.
“Crimes induced by online gambling harm not only China’s interests and China-Philippine relations, but also the interests of the Philippines.
“The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines will continue to strengthen communication and cooperation with the Philippine government and law enforcement agencies in this regard, and jointly handle repatriation among other related issues.”
The embassy’s dual statements over the past week are its first on the issue of online gambling since issuing a statement in October 2022 denying it had placed the Philippines on a blacklist of tourism destinations in relation to issues around its online gaming industry. That statement was posted in response to comments by a Philippines senator claiming the country had been blacklisted because of the “problem of POGO”.
As IAG reported last week, Philippines gaming regulator PAGCOR is in the process of issuing new licenses to POGO operators – to be known as Internet Gaming Licensees in future – as part of efforts to clean up the offshore gaming industry.
