Another Philippines mayor has been accused of links to a POGO hub after the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on Wednesday filed graft charges with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Jaime Capil – the suspended mayor of Porac in Pampanga.
Capil and other local officials are accused of undue haste in the approval permits for recently raided POGO Lucky South 99, which is accused of engaging in various criminal activities including cyber scams and human trafficking. According to state-run Philippine News Agency, the permits were pushed through between 2021 and 2023 despite applications forms being blank or incomplete, while the officials are also said to have failed to act on reports of criminal activity by Lucky South 99.
The graft complaints have been filed against Capil plus Vice Mayor Francis Laurence Tamayo, town Business Permit and Licensing Office OIC Emerald Vital, and eight other members, the DOJ said. This followed investigations by the PAOCC, the DOJ, and the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.
The case bears some semblance to the infamous Alice Guo saga. The former Bamban mayor, also known as Guo Hua Ping, fled the Philippines in July amid investigations of links with illegal offshore gaming hubs before being arrested in Indonesia and deported back to the Philippines.
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