The Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) industry is once again embroiled in scandal, as four Chinese nationals suspected of human trafficking managed to "depart" the country without leaving any records in the immigration system. An internal report leaked from the Bureau of Immigration is gradually revealing the dark underbelly behind this mysterious escape: substantial bribes and internal collusion.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is currently conducting a comprehensive internal investigation. Preliminary findings indicate that although these four Chinese suspects had departure stamps on their passports, they were not registered in the system at all—no scanning, no fingerprint collection, no photos, and no data uploaded to the border control system. This method of "system-exempt departure" severely violates procedures and has caused an uproar among senior officials.
It is understood that the four individuals involved, Zhang Zhaoya, Wang Linmei, Qi Xianyang, and Chen Wenda, had already been placed on the immigration "Alert List" (ALO) due to issues such as visa forgery and overstaying. Despite being detained recently, they managed to leave the country "silently" from the airport VIP lounge without going through regular border checks, raising serious doubts externally.
Internal sources claim that each of the four suspects paid a "brokerage fee" of 500,000 pesos, bribing specific immigration personnel through underground channels to successfully evade deportation and legal sanctions. The entire escape process was divided into four steps:
VIP reception: The suspects arrived at the airport with business class tickets and were escorted to the VIP channel;
Designated personnel operation: Immigration officers pre-coordinated to handle the departure procedures;
Fake stamping: Passports were stamped but did not actually go through the exit process;
Data disappearance: All data "skipped" the border check system, effectively vanishing into thin air.
Bureau Director Joel Villanueva took a firm stance: "This is a challenge to the system. We will severely punish those involved and will not tolerate any form of internal corruption."
Currently, several immigration officers involved have been suspended and are under investigation. The Bureau is also working with anti-corruption agencies to further investigate whether there is a larger network of "illegal assistance in departure." The incident has attracted widespread attention and may also have a profound impact on the regulatory policies towards POGO.
