Last week, Philippine authorities arrested the CFO of Zunyuan Technology Company, which had operated at the offshore gambling operator in Banban, Tarlac Province, which was raided.
Since the raid in March that exposed the cases of Banban and Guo Huaping, authorities have been trying to arrest a previously unnamed Chinese national, said to be important in the company structure—49-year-old Pan Meishu, English name Hannah.
Unlike the company boss—big boss Huang Zhiyang and Singaporean money laundering criminals Lin Baoying and Zhang Ruijin, Pan Meishu did not leave the Philippines and was confident. On Thursday, December 19, while strolling in Pasay City, immigration agents spotted her.
According to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Pan Meishu is the CFO of POGO licensee Zunyuan, which is suspected of covering up a fraud center.
Joel Anthony Viado, the director of the Immigration Bureau, said: "As we crack down on illegal POGO operations, more arrests are expected. These companies engaged in illegal activities have no place in the country."
POGO is not over
However, there is a significant discrepancy in the number of foreigners actually working in POGOs in the Philippines. This is the basis for the authorities to prepare more actions in 2024, claiming that foreign workers will engage in disguised operations separately.
According to the Immigration Bureau (BI), since the complete ban on POGO, the number of foreigners who voluntarily downgraded their visa levels has exceeded 21,000. Among them, 10,821 people left the country at the beginning of December, and the bureau also estimates that 7,000 people will leave by the end of this year.
Compared to the PAOCC's estimate of 353,525 POGO workers, this number is very small. PAOCC is based on the number of foreign employment permits (AEP) issued specifically for POGO by the Ministry of Labor.
According to the Immigration Bureau's FOI (Freedom of Information) request through Rappler, between 2019 and 2024, another 328,925 foreigners obtained Special Work Permits (SWP), Provisional Work Permits (PWP), or 9G business visas. This number may decrease, as it may overlap with PWP holders who have upgraded to visas.
If hundreds of thousands of former POGO workers do not leave the Philippines—where will they work?
"Rogue POGOs will hide in special categories of BPOs," said Gilbert Cruz, Deputy Minister of PAOCC, in an earlier interview. BPO is a business process outsourcing company.
POGOs may also operate on a smaller scale in hotels, resorts, and residences within the district.
"There are many signs of how to discover an operation. If it's a house, the lights are on 24 hours, there are many foreigners in the area, they always deliver food, there is a lot of trash, they constantly install new internet connections, there are many danger signals, many signs," Cruz said.
Unanswered questions about CEZA
There are also foreign workers within the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), an eco-zone not under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).
If they are protected by the POGO ban, it remains a gray area. CEZA is managed by the Enrile family, whose powerful charter drafted by Juan Ponce Enrile, the chief presidential advisor to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., grants it certain autonomy.
At the last Senate hearing on POGO in November last year, CEZA insisted they were not bound by the ban because, according to their definition, their licensees' gambling operations are not conducted in the country.
"Some offshore gambling licensees operate abroad... We believe that the actions of CEZA's interactive gaming licensees abroad are not subject to the constraints of the executive order," CEZA Deputy Director Marichelle De Guzman told the Senate on November 26.
Senator Risa Hontiveros then stated that this is still an issue that needs to be clarified with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin. When asked if CEZA is subject to the ban, Cruz said: "As far as I know, that's the case, the president said that's all. Maybe even the export processing zones are included in the scope that needs to be closed."
