Iba’t ibang POGO o Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators hub sa iba’t ibang panig ng Pilipinas, sinalakay ng mga awtoridad.
Sa Porac, Pampanga, nilibot ni Jessica Soho ang tinaguriang ‘most notorious illegal POGO scam farm’ sa bansa. Dito, na-rescue at nakapanayam ng aming team ang isang Chinese National na sampung araw nang nakakulong sa isa sa mga kuwarto sa POGO hub.
Ano pa kayang madidilim na sikreto ang mabubunyag dito? Ang mundo ng POGO na pugad din umano ng sex trafficking, ating imbestigahan sa espesyal na report na ito.
Panoorin ang video.
#KMJS
Sa Porac, Pampanga, nilibot ni Jessica Soho ang tinaguriang ‘most notorious illegal POGO scam farm’ sa bansa. Dito, na-rescue at nakapanayam ng aming team ang isang Chinese National na sampung araw nang nakakulong sa isa sa mga kuwarto sa POGO hub.
Ano pa kayang madidilim na sikreto ang mabubunyag dito? Ang mundo ng POGO na pugad din umano ng sex trafficking, ating imbestigahan sa espesyal na report na ito.
Panoorin ang video.
#KMJS
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NewsTranscript
00:00 It's hot to talk about the Pogo or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators in our society.
00:10 If they are good or bad in our country.
00:24 Hundreds of people left the country when PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group or CIDG
00:34 invaded the Porac, Pampanga.
00:38 The place is considered as the most notorious illegal Pogo scam farm in the country.
00:46 Here, more than 100 people were arrested by the authorities for cyber scam or online fraud.
00:57 It's not just a scam farm, it's a kidnapping hub.
01:00 Some victims of human trafficking were also rescued.
01:05 When we found out that he was a criminal, we couldn't find his body.
01:14 There were instances that we saw dead bodies scattered on the streets.
01:19 Imagine, 60 bodies were found here.
01:21 There's a scam city on the border of Myanmar and Thailand.
01:24 But here in the Philippines, there are already a lot.
01:28 A few days after the raid, the place became quiet.
01:32 Until last Thursday night, inside a dark room,
01:37 someone was heard.
01:44 Hey!
01:45 Hello!
01:48 A man, whose movement was based on his voice, was asking for help.
01:53 You wait!
01:55 The Chinese National who was being rescued was in a room on the third floor.
02:02 I'm just asking.
02:04 Sir, what has happened today, there's been screaming.
02:08 But no response.
02:10 The building is locked, that's why the police used a bolt cutter.
02:16 In the operation of looting illegal sheds,
02:25 what other dark secrets will be revealed?
02:30 You're out!
02:37 You're out!
02:38 Just last year, in the documentary "Secret Slaves",
02:46 I interviewed Filipinos who were victims of human trafficking and illegal detention
02:52 who were rescued from Myanmar.
02:55 Where they were forced to do scammers or fraud.
03:01 I thought my job was CSR.
03:03 Customer Service Representative.
03:05 Now, I found out that they told me that my job is not like that.
03:10 My job there is a scam.
03:13 What was your reaction when they told you that your job here is also a scam?
03:18 I just found out from my Filipinos.
03:21 I said I don't want to work.
03:23 They told me that this is Myanmar, there is no government here, we control this area.
03:28 We can kill you.
03:30 The company is telling me to increase the number of scammers because if not, you will be punished.
03:37 Hammer, hammer, whatever they hit me with, keyboard, there's wood, there's steel, there's baton.
03:46 This kind of chaos is not only happening in other parts of Asia,
03:51 but it is also happening in our country.
03:56 You are now being exposed as operators of online gambling or POGO or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators,
04:04 which is now called IGL or Internet Game Licensee.
04:09 In the past years, it seems like POGO has been a good thing for our country.
04:15 Most of them are in Luzon.
04:18 In total, there are now more than 200.
04:24 And of those, only 60 have a license.
04:27 Most of them are not, meaning, illegal.
04:31 Like what happened here in Porak, Pampanga.
04:34 This past Sunday, it was raided by PAOK or the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.
04:42 There is a scam city on the border of Myanmar and Thailand.
04:49 That's here in the Philippines.
04:50 There are also many.
04:52 We thought that we were the victims in other countries.
04:54 Because we were also rescuing there in Myanmar, in Thailand.
04:59 But only two years ago, we found out that they already have operations here.
05:06 That's my question.
05:08 How did these businesses here happen to be established?
05:13 That there are illegal businesses here.
05:16 It's not just a matter of being exposed.
05:18 Suddenly, something was established there.
05:21 According to Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz of PAOK,
05:24 it all started when someone sent them a video of people being tortured.
05:32 Like this video where the man repeatedly beats another man using a steel.
05:44 This woman was beaten on the face and repeatedly punched in the forehead.
05:51 Then, the authorities traced the torture videos
05:58 and took them inside this 10 hectare compound here in Porak, Pampanga
06:04 which is owned by the company Lucky South 99.
06:08 That's why the raid was immediately stopped this Sunday.
06:12 [Horn honking]
06:16 But the operation seemed to be a success.
06:19 [Indistinct chatter]
06:22 They were about to escape.
06:23 When we were about to serve the warrant,
06:25 they suddenly started to run.
06:28 We were just in the middle of it.
06:30 Only 159 foreign nationals and 36 Filipinos were rescued from the target of 1,000.
06:39 7 Filipinos were considered illegal here.
06:43 They were in a hurry.
06:45 They left the other torture victims here.
06:48 Only a few hours after the raid,
06:51 Hey, who's that?
06:53 Hey, he's in a position.
06:55 Sir, he's in a position.
06:56 a man in a position in a bed asked for help from the authorities.
07:07 The man was skinny and hungry.
07:09 He had a black eye and a big bruise on his arm and back.
07:14 He was kidnapped on June 3.
07:16 He had a gun pointed at him and he was being forced to commit a scam.
07:20 He didn't want to do it because he was being tortured.
07:24 The pogo hub in Porak, Dumano was also the source of sex trafficking.
07:31 We have a video of it that we showed because it's a bit of a joke.
07:35 A hungry foreign national was being tortured and sold online on Biding.
07:40 Meanwhile, because there was a message from the authorities
07:45 that they heard shouts from the compound's windows,
07:49 the people of PAOK and CIDG returned to the scene on Tuesday.
07:55 Hello? Hello?
07:59 And there, they saw a man who was looking out of one of the windows.
08:06 You wait. You wait. Wait.
08:09 I'm still trying.
08:10 A Chinese man was begging for help.
08:14 Lock me in this room.
08:15 I got a poor.
08:16 Lock me in this room.
08:17 You're the only one locked in here?
08:20 Yes.
08:21 He said only himself.
08:23 I can see his back and arms. I can't see his back.
08:29 He said maybe before someone hit her.
08:34 So still have some hooses.
08:37 He said for the past two days, he has been swimming but no response.
08:42 The building was locked, so the police also used a bolt cutter.
08:48 [Music]
09:00 Until they entered the room where the man was helped.
09:07 He was stripped naked and covered in sweat.
09:11 What did he say?
09:13 He said, "Rescue me."
09:15 He was beaten up.
09:16 You're safe. You're safe. You tell them you're safe.
09:18 You're the police.
09:20 I'm a heavyweight fighter.
09:22 He asked whether they were still beating him. I said, "No more."
09:26 No, no. No more. No more.
09:27 According to him, he has been in this room for 10 days.
09:31 The other torture victims we saw, they have the same story.
09:36 They didn't reach their quota.
09:38 And they beat them. They hurt them.
09:41 And they can't escape?
09:42 No.
09:43 If you are a foreign national and you are in the casinos here,
09:46 you can't pay anymore, they will sell you to those scam farms.
09:51 This has been going on for a period of a few months or years.
09:56 It's been years.
09:57 You said this is bigger than Bambang?
10:00 Yes. About three times bigger.
10:03 This is the only fairness.
10:04 I surrounded Lucky South 99 in Porak, in a 10-hectare land.
10:10 There are 46 buildings.
10:13 The security in the compound is very tight.
10:17 They have barbed wire, razor wire.
10:19 It's like a garrison.
10:20 So you can't escape?
10:22 The story of those who survive in places like this,
10:27 like our fellow countrymen in Myanmar and Thailand,
10:30 what they call a scam city,
10:32 they can't just escape.
10:34 It's the same here.
10:36 Look, they are strict.
10:38 They need an ID before they can enter.
10:40 They have dogs to take care of.
10:43 What happens here,
10:44 not only is this a workplace,
10:46 but the workers of the Pogo also live here.
10:50 They stay in.
10:51 They have supervisors.
10:53 They are not free to do what they want to do
10:57 because they are being watched every move.
11:01 The air-conditioner is still working, they were not killed.
11:04 They are still wearing their clothes.
11:06 What's surprising here is that it's in the center,
11:10 just near Angeles and Porak.
11:12 It's like this Pogo is still under subdivision.
11:16 The neighbors there probably have no idea
11:20 what illegal activities are happening inside this office.
11:27 The truth is, if it's not, we really don't know.
11:32 The detainees,
11:34 Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Burmese nationals,
11:38 are now here in the holding facility of PAOK.
11:41 They will be put under immigration inquest
11:44 before they are deported to their countries.
11:48 We didn't live there.
11:49 We didn't work here.
11:51 We just sit on the car.
11:54 One of them is the Chinese national who was rescued on the third floor.
11:59 Our team has an exclusive interview with him.
12:02 We hid him under the name Peter.
12:04 According to him, he left his job in China
12:08 because he had a friend who told him that the salary in the Philippines is higher.
12:13 I didn't know when I entered.
12:16 I didn't know.
12:17 No one told me that he would introduce me to someone.
12:19 He just told me to join him to talk face to face.
12:22 He's not a stocks, he's not a lottery, he's a love scam.
12:25 Love scam.
12:26 He gave me a lot of documents to read.
12:28 Then I just read it.
12:29 While I was reading, I noticed that there was something wrong.
12:32 Chinese?
12:33 But Peter didn't receive his salary that day.
12:36 His Chinese partner even hurt him.
12:39 The beating was so bad.
12:41 I couldn't walk anymore.
12:42 It was scary and painful.
12:44 I felt like I was going to die.
12:46 Do you have a warrant?
12:48 Do you have a warrant?
12:50 In the middle of our shoot in Porak,
12:52 this man approached the police.
12:55 The security guard who was raided by Pogo Compound introduced him.
12:59 He is Jasper, 34 years old,
13:02 born in Blayan, Oriental, Mindoro.
13:05 According to Jasper, he hid in a bathroom when he heard the raid.
13:10 We didn't know that there was a raid.
13:12 We were scared.
13:13 We didn't know our position.
13:14 The three of us were on our own.
13:16 He hid.
13:17 Within three days, he survived.
13:19 It was only in February when Jasper entered the compound as a security guard of Pogo.
13:24 He didn't know the crimes that were happening inside the buildings he was watching.
13:30 I know that there is internet gaming upstairs.
13:33 Do you go inside?
13:34 No, it's prohibited.
13:35 There are guards on their own.
13:37 We can't go inside.
13:38 We only have 533 pesos a day here.
13:42 I work for my family.
13:44 I was told that I would be jailed.
13:45 I haven't seen them for a long time.
13:47 It's been 8 years.
13:49 He said that he will be in jail for 8 years.
13:51 We will not see each other for 8 years.
13:52 And this is what will happen to us.
13:54 Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGO in short,
13:57 in simple words, online gambling.
14:00 Established by foreigners,
14:02 we welcome to our country,
14:04 of the past years.
14:06 Why not?
14:08 They bring that much money and a lot of work.
14:13 According to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation,
14:17 POGO started operating in our country in 2003.
14:22 In 2016, under the Duterte administration,
14:26 it was regulated.
14:28 That POGO,
14:30 we are in so far,
14:32 it's clean.
14:33 It's just a game for the other side.
14:36 But it employs something like 20,000 here in Manila.
14:43 For 2023,
14:45 5.2 billion pesos were invested in the Philippine economy
14:51 by legal POGO industries.
14:54 Most of them are Paroquians,
14:56 Chinese nationals.
14:58 Gambling is illegal in China.
15:00 That's why these POGOs are moving overseas.
15:05 The promise of POGO,
15:07 it can give a lot of work for the Filipinos.
15:10 Well, they provide employment.
15:12 For example, their shuttles,
15:14 they have drivers,
15:15 they have food providers,
15:17 they have people who rent houses,
15:19 we have call centers that cater to them.
15:22 So, those who are employed are Filipinos.
15:24 Before, when POGO said,
15:26 "Wow, that's money,
15:28 it will give a lot of work to the Filipinos,
15:31 it will give a big dollar to the economy."
15:34 We didn't know that this was happening.
15:38 That's the promise,
15:40 that it will give a lot of work.
15:41 But what we see is that the majority,
15:45 let's say 85%,
15:47 the ones who work here,
15:48 the Banyagas,
15:49 10% of the Filipinos are left behind.
15:51 That's for maintenance,
15:54 that's for their laundry,
15:56 that's for housekeeping.
15:57 Even so,
15:58 many of the POGOs
16:00 can't pay their taxes properly.
16:03 It's very unfair,
16:04 they are very negative towards our country.
16:06 The debt of POGOs to our country is very high
16:10 in the form of taxes.
16:12 There were also possible torture chambers
16:14 in a POGO in Pasay.
16:15 And in the following years,
16:17 the smell of illegal POGOs in the country
16:20 gradually disappeared,
16:23 which was known by others.
16:25 Kidnapping and cybercrime hub were also used.
16:29 July 2023, in Las Piñas City,
16:33 a POGO hub was raided by scams,
16:36 such as fake shipping,
16:38 fake online charity,
16:40 fake shopping websites,
16:42 and others.
16:43 1,534 Filipinos
16:46 and 1,190 foreigners
16:49 were rescued from there.
16:51 Aside from the illegal activities inside the POGO hubs,
16:55 former Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana
16:59 said that they are in charge of the POGO hubs
17:03 in accordance with our national security.
17:05 You can see that there are many people there,
17:08 who are always there.
17:09 It's very easy for these people
17:12 to shift their activities to spying.
17:17 Before the authorities raided the POGO in Pora,
17:21 they first raided the POGO compound in Bambantarla.
17:25 Aside from the illegal activities inside the villas,
17:28 scam hubs,
17:29 and the growing number of tunnels,
17:32 875 foreigners were rescued,
17:36 6 of them were confirmed wanted in China.
17:41 The situation in Diumano also became hot.
17:44 The mayor of Bambantarla, Alice Guwo,
17:48 also connected with this.
17:49 When she was not yet a mayor,
17:51 she applied for the letter of no objection
17:54 to the municipal council.
17:56 Two of her associates in Zunuan
17:59 were prime suspects
18:01 in the biggest money laundering case in Singapore.
18:05 The mayor's citizenship was questioned in a Senate hearing.
18:10 Where was your house when you were born?
18:13 I don't know anymore, Your Honor.
18:17 Who was your home school provider?
18:20 Your Honor, my teacher, Teacher Rubilin.
18:24 I grew up on a farm.
18:26 I mentioned her in the Senate hearing.
18:30 I was with Teacher Rubilin.
18:32 Until the judges started to suspect
18:36 if Mayor Guwo was a spy of China.
18:40 There were many outright lies,
18:43 inconsistencies and contradictions in her statements
18:48 and in the documents about her identity,
18:53 nationality and actual existence of her parents.
18:58 Meanwhile, in the middle of the investigation
19:02 of Bamban Pogo and Mayor Guwo,
19:05 a new character appeared,
19:07 the captain of the barangay of San Vicente in Bamban,
19:11 Captain Shandel.
19:13 According to him,
19:14 Mayor Guwo suspended him from being the captain of the barangay
19:18 because he didn't obey.
19:20 He stopped Guwo from buying land
19:23 behind their barangay hall
19:25 that is 54 hectares.
19:28 Oscar Rivera is selling this land to Mayor Guwo's friend.
19:34 I'm the only one who can sell this land.
19:35 This whole area, up to the top of that mountain,
19:38 1.5 kilometers, it's already a clark.
19:40 Almost all the land of the rich is already there.
19:43 The law on ancestral domain is under Republic Act 8371,
19:47 the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.
19:50 The law says that the ancestral lands are community property.
19:55 It cannot be sold.
19:56 When we asked the leader of the indigenous people in San Vicente,
20:01 he admitted that Mayor Guwo approached him about the land.
20:06 But Guwo didn't buy it,
20:09 he just wanted to rent it.
20:11 He just asked for a little bit of land for the school.
20:16 We tried to ask Guwo,
20:19 but he didn't say anything.
20:21 Meanwhile, the authorities are now finding out
20:24 who is behind this huge fire in Pora.
20:29 In the next few days,
20:31 we will see who is the real owner behind this Lucky South 99.
20:37 And the Filipino people will be surprised
20:40 who is really behind this.
20:42 Aside from the question of who should be responsible,
20:45 the authorities are still worried that there are still many victims
20:50 trapped inside the huge compound of Lucky South 99.
20:55 Especially, not all of them are able to return home alive.
20:59 There were instances that we saw dead bodies scattered in the streets.
21:04 Imagine, there were 60 bodies here.
21:07 So you will trace them?
21:08 Yes, ma'am.
21:09 What happens is,
21:10 when we get the picture of the dead body,
21:13 and it looks like a Chinese,
21:15 we will coordinate with the embassy.
21:17 And then we will find out that there is a missing person.
21:20 Is there still a person there?
21:22 There was a woman whose voice was weak,
21:26 and then suddenly her voice disappeared.
21:28 It was a bandarito.
21:29 The voice of a weak woman,
21:32 and then her voice disappeared.
21:34 Good evening to all of us.
21:35 We are here to implement the search warrant number 24-06.
21:41 Last night,
21:42 the search warrant said that from the regional trial court of San Fernando City in Pampanga,
21:48 the room where the woman's voice was heard was entered by the CIDG.
21:54 [Gunshots]
21:56 Inside, we saw cell phones,
22:07 alarm clocks,
22:08 and vaults.
22:09 Clear, clear.
22:12 But there was no trace of any person.
22:15 Actually, there was no pro.
22:18 It was all conspiracy.
22:19 Because POGO brings here crime, human trafficking, prostitution,
22:27 they are now allying with local criminal syndicates.
22:31 I have signed a committee report before,
22:33 the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs,
22:35 that POGO should be removed.
22:37 This organized crime that was hidden in the operation of some POGOs
22:44 has spread to poor countries.
22:47 Scam City, which is now being visited by many in different parts of the Philippines.
22:56 We thought that they were good to our economy and provided jobs.
23:03 But it turned out that they became the center or centerpiece of crime and corruption.
23:12 No more beating.
23:14 [Music]
23:17 Thank you for watching, kapuso.
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