More than 700 workers have been rescued after a task force led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Department of Justice raided on Saturday an illegal POGO operation in Pasay City – located alongside Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport – on suspicion of sex trafficking.
According to a report by government-run Philippine News Agency, the POGO firm was found operating out of a six-story building that featured a nine-room KTV area, a pharmacy with a physician and two patient beds, a restaurant, and a hotpot “shabu-shabu” area.
The raid was conducted after a search warrant was issued by Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 35, with a previous PAGCOR inspection having seen personnel denied entry by the property’s security guards.
The report claims officers were approached by two men who claimed to have been held against their will, after which 731 workers were rescued from an “aquarium-style viewing chamber of a massage parlor” on the building’s second floor.
“Given the abundance of evidence pointing to sex trafficking on said site, an onsite inquest hearing (will be done) for the filing of criminal charges,” the PAOCC said in a statement.
It is also alleged that the company in question, Smart Web Technology Corp, previously had its POGO license revoked by PAGCOR but had resumed operating under a new business name via the regulator’s recently announced Internet Gaming License (IGL) scheme.
“PAOCC will recommend that Smart Web Technology Corp’s temporary license as an IGL operator be revoked for allowing human trafficking to take place at their facility,” it said. “As a result, the building, as well as other assets owned by the aforementioned IGL, will be referred for freezing and maybe confiscated as illegal gains.”
As reported by IAG, PAGCOR recently placed all POGOs under a probationary stance and required all to apply for new licenses. The agency also told IAG last month that offshore gaming operators would no longer be known as POGOs, to be replaced by IGLs from this month.
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