End of the road: Government law enforcement agents conducting a raid at a suspected offshore gaming operator’s compound in Bataan province. — Photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer
PETALING JAYA: Authorities in the Philippines raided a suspected offshore gaming operator’s compound for alleged human trafficking inside a freeport supposedly being run by a Malaysian.
The compound was in the village of Parang in Central Luzon over two hours away from Manila.
The village, located in Bagac in the Bataan Province, was raided on Thursday where hundreds of scam workers, including 300 suspects from China and Malaysia, were arrested, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The raiding authorities were the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
Two days earlier, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested 18 Chinese nationals running an alleged “scam hub” in Paranaque City, which was suspected to be a smaller illegal Pogo (short for Philippines offshore gaming operator) that had branched off from a larger one.
One of the suspects also attempted to bribe agents while they were being transported to the NBI office in Quezon City, offering 300,000 pesos (approximately RM23,000) for each of the 17 others, according to NBI director Jaime Santiago.
Amid a heavy downpour over Bagac, the raiders, which included a small team of elite soldiers, entered the 1.5ha compound to implement a warrant to search seven buildings of Central One Bataan PH Inc at Centro Park Freeport.
Judge Hermenegildo Dumlao II of Malolos Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch No. 81 issued the warrant when he found probable cause to believe that the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act had been violated after he examined the warrant application of Police Lt. Mark Jayson Turqueza of the CIDG and other witnesses.
The respondents in the alleged trafficking case included four Malaysians, 10 Chinese, and one Thai.
Hundreds of Filipinos and foreigners were seen by journalists being held for identification. Central One has 1,500 workers and seven buildings, according to a human resources officer of the company.
As of early Friday evening, 358 Filipinos and 57 foreigners were accounted for, said PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio.
He did not say whether the alleged trafficking suspects were arrested during the raid, but he told reporters that they found “violations in relations to offshore gaming operations that are not allowed within the permits of this Pogo.”
Casio pointed to a “notorious online betting platform” called Winbox, which he said was banned in many countries.
“We have seen it in plain view here at Central One,” he told reporters at the site during the raid.
“So that is already a red flag, a probable cause for us that would allow us, necessitate us, to apply for a cyberwarrant.”
The search warrant the raiders carried allowed them to seize, among others, “scripts” used to scam victims, cellphone SIM cards and cloning devices, Internet equipment and routers, identification cards, company documents and monies “acquired in their scamming operations.”
It was not immediately clear what items and how many had been seized by PAOCC.
Central One identifies itself as a business process outsourcing company that was established in 2022, but it is “a Pogo operating without a licence from Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp),” Casio said.
In June, Bataan Governor Joet Garcia and Bagac Mayor Rommel del Rosario personally inspected the company and found “no irregularities,” according to a statement from the local government.
The “thorough inspection” followed “speculation among locals” that the compound “could be a Pogo.”
“We conducted this inspection to ensure transparency and to address the concerns of our constituents. Based on our observations, we found no evidence of any illicit activities within the company,” Garcia was quoted as saying.
Casio said Bataan local government officials could not detect the Pogo operation.
Santiago said during a press conference on Wednesday that the raid on Tuesday followed information received by the NBI’s Cybercrime Division that at least four condominium apartments in the city were being used in fraudulent activities.
Surveillance later showed workstations being used in investment and cryptocurrency scams, theft of bank account information, and illegal gambling.
The NBI applied for a warrant to search, seize, and examine computer data in the four condominiums.
The Chinese nationals were caught as they were actively engaged in scamming, like posing as representatives of legitimate businesses to lure victims or promoting gambling sites manipulated to ensure that bettors would always lose.
Jeremy Lotoc, chief of the Cybercrime Division, said that the NBI had observed that following anti-Pogo operations, large Pogos splintered into smaller groups.
“Their operations would either be in residential or condo units – again, to avoid law enforcement action,” he said.
The Chinese nationals will be charged with violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act, while the 18th one would be charged with corruption of public officials.
Santiago said the agents “played along” with the alleged briber who brought to the NBI office 1.5 million pesos – the supposed “first of five batches” of payments – for the total 5.1 million peso bribe offer.
The 18 Chinese nationals are detained at the NBI and the 57 foreigners taken from Central One will be held at the PAOCC detention centre in Pasay City while formal charges are being prepared against them, including possible violations of immigration laws.
