POGO workers freed as Philippine authorities crackdown
Authorities in the Philippines have liberated 140 people who were working in illegal Philippines Offshore Gambling Operator (POGO) companies, just days after announcing a crackdown on crime in the sector.
The Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) also revoked the license of one firm, identified as the Crimson Tulip BPO in Pasig City.
Authorities freed forty foreign workers in one operation in Angeles city from an illegal POGO, and liberate a further 100 in Rizal. The authorities said the workers had been kidnapped and illegally detained.
The majority of the workers were Chinese, but also included Vietnamese, Taiwanese, one Malaysian and local Filipinos.
PAGCOR and other law enforcement agencies in the country were last week given two weeks to clean up the industry following a rise in kidnappings. PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco said the crimes were giving the industry a bad name and urged legal POGOs to collaborate to weed out the bad players, which are putting the industry as a whole at risk.
The freed workers have been handed over to the Bureau of Immigration for their documents and working permits to be checked.
The order to clean up the offshore gambling operators came from President Ferdinand Marcos.
The Philippine National Police also pledged on Monday to step up their efforts to weed out undocumented workers.
Local media reports that there were at least 800,000 Chinese in the country who entered when POGO operations were approved.
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