Nanawagan ngayon si House Committee on Dangerous Drugs Chair Robert Ace Barbers kay PAGCOR Chair Alejandro Tengco na isapubliko ang listahan ng lahat ng lehitimong POGO sa bansa na binigyan nila ng lisensya at accreditation.
Hiningi rin ng mambabatas kay Tengco na makipag-tulungan sa Kongreso para maisiwalat ang mga POGO na walang lisensya.
Kasunod na rin ito ng pagbubunyag ng PAGCOR chair na may isang dating miyembro ng gabinete ang nagtutulak at ginagamit ang kaniyang impluwensya para mabigyan ng lisensya ang mga POGO noong nakaraang adminstrasyon.
Giit ni Barbers ang mga iligal na POGO ay nagiging ‘one stop shop” ng kriminalidad.
At kung hahayaan ang operasyon nila ay hindi malayong makain ng tiwaling sistema ang bansa.
“POGOs, whether licensed, legitimate or illegal are nothing but fronts for criminal activities. Ranging from money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, protecting criminal syndicates engaged in murders, kidnapping, torture, rape and up to engaging in POGO politics, name it and surely it is all there. POGO is the one stop shop of criminal activities”, ani Barbers
“If we continue to allow their operations, we will all be consumed by its corrupt and criminal system until it becomes the accepted norm and our society becomes worthless. POGOs are a curse that have to be taken out from our system”, dagdag niya.
Babala pa ng kongresista, nagsisimula na ring dumagsa ang iba pang ASEAN nationals gaya ng Vietnamese, Malaysians at Indonesian na pumapalit sa nga Chinese nationals na nagta-trabaho sa POGO.
At dahil sa malaya silang pumasok sa bansa nang walang visa dahil sa ASEAN member nation ay dapat na itong bantayan ng Bureau of Immigration.
“We have seen the unabated influx of Chinese who were given student and retirees visas by the Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine Retirement Authority. We are not done yet with our investigations so I am warning these agencies not to extend working visas to these new arrivals who are being used to replace Chinese employees in the POGOs. I promise you, we will come out with our committee report recommending the appropriate actions when we are done with our investigations”, babala ni Barbers
Pagtiyak pa nito na sinomang indibidwal o grupo ang mapatunayang nang-impluwensya o nagpabaya para makapasok ang mga iligal na POGO ay kanilang pananagutin.
“The same is true with PAGCOR. If it is proven that all those raided POGOs engaged in criminal activities have been licensed, or that other licensed POGOs being protected and sponsored by some influential and notorious characters are found to be havens for criminal activities, we will make sure that those negligent, incompetent and corrupt will be punished”, wika ni Barbers. | ulat ni Kathleen Forbes
