CEBU: The local government here will go down to the e-games and internet-based entertainment hubs operating in the capital city to ensure they are not used as front for Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs).
In a press conference on Tuesday, Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) is coordinating with the Cebu City Police Office in inspecting e-games centers.
‘There’s no assurance that there is no POGO here but from the time that we conduct inspections (on call centers), we find out that there are e-games and internet games that are common in the city,’ Garcia said.
Garcia said the BPLO and local police found out that internet gamers hauled themselves in one setting, but their operation is not POGO and their business registrations are also above board.
The BPLO reported there is no establishment here that is registered by its operator as a POGO.
‘You can see computers there. But they are legal. However, we are just making sure that they are not doing
any illegal act like POGOs,’ he added.
Garcia’s statement came after the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and other law enforcement units raided a POGO hub in a resort in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, rescuing 162 foreigners and 10 Filipino women.
In response to the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during his third State of the Nation Address in July to ban all POGOs in the country, Garcia ordered the BPLO and the local police to monitor and run after possible POGO-operated call centers.
Source: Philippines News Agency
