The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) stated it’s addressing “gaps” in its inspection of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) within the nation, which is proscribed to bodily checks of workplaces.
Jessa Mariz Fernandez, assistant vice chairman for offshore licensing division, informed the Senate committee in a listening to Wednesday that PAGCOR additionally wants interpreters well-versed in Chinese and Bahasa languages throughout web site visits.
The listening to was the continuation of the Senate inquiry presided by Senator Risa Hontiveros on human trafficking incidents within the nation, together with the case of alleged 1,000 trafficking victims rescued on the Sun Valley in Clark, Pampanga in May.
“Hindi nakita agad since they used to be customer relations service providers. The impression is that…they are using computers, it is sophisticated, and then they zoom out, aalisin nila sa monitor iyong tunay nilang ginagawa,” Fernandez informed senators.
“It was a physical inspection by our monitoring team, they do not delve on what is happening on the computers, and we are addressing this gap in this inspection,” she added.
Hontiveros additionally referred to as out PAGCOR over its failure to alert the police on the Sun Valley operation, on condition that the inspection and the police raid on the agency have been just a few weeks aside. Fernandez stated PAGCOR was “remiss” on this side.
Hontiveros, nonetheless, stated being remiss in combating such crimes ought to have penalties.
”Being remiss is an understatement. It ought to have penalties. In our houses, colleges, particularly in our office since we work for the federal government to fight this horrible syndicated crime,” the senator stated.
Fernandez stated the company is now instituting reforms, together with putting all POGO licensees underneath probation till September 15; making future licenses cowl solely gaming operations; and inspecting anew POGO workplaces whose licenses have been already revoked.
The PAGCOR official stated the company is eyeing to deploy extra manpower in its monitoring group who’re well-versed in Chinese and Bahasa languages.
“One of the results of our monitoring is we have to deploy more manpower vis-a-vis the number of sites to be inspected. We also have to deploy interpreters, since there are times when they already talk about our inspection but we cannot understand them,” Fernandez stated.
“What happened in Clark was really an eye-opener,” she added.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian noticed that increasingly human trafficking victims are being rescued.
“Just last May, there were 1,000 human trafficking victims rescued, then another 2,700 human trafficking victims were also rescued. The figure is pushing to 4,000 for this year alone. Are you still supporting the operation of POGO in our country?” Gatchalian stated.
Fernandez responded, saying: “While POGO exists, Pagcor’s goal is to regulate it. But we will respect the legislative or executive branch if they decide to outlaw POGO.”
Gatchalian, however, said POGO’s fate rests on the executive.
“You are part of the executive. We can only express our sense here. You are the one who is going to make the decision. I just want to get a direct answer,” he stated.
“We are already the human trafficking capital of the world. It is clear that POGO is not bringing any benefit to our country. It is bringing shame,” he added.—LDF, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
