With the deadline for all POGOs to disappear from the country nearing, operators of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations are reinventing their businesses in the country to ensure their continued operations here.
This, as Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked the Department of Labor and Employment to adopt a proactive approach that would lead to the cancellation of alien employment permits (AEP) of foreign workers employed in POGOs.
“POGO entities are morphing into something else so they could stay in the country and continue their scamming activities,” Gatchalian noted during his interpellation of the DOLE proposed budget for 2025.
“We need a very proactive approach to cancel and eventually send these workers to their countries of origin and we need the entire government machinery to work together to cut the legal basis for these individuals to stay in the Philippines,” he was quoted by Business Mirror.
Gatchalian noted that “the legal basis for Pogo operations is set to expire by the end of the year, after which a ban will take effect.”
DOLE said around 15,819 AEPs were issued in 2024 alone. About 36,000 AEPs have already been canceled since the President announced in July a ban on POGOs by the end of the year.
DOLE assured it is coordinating closely with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to ensure that the working visas of foreigners with Pogo-related AEPs are canceled and they are prevented from staying illegally in the country.
Jobs for displaced POGO workers
Gatchalian also asked DOLE to step up its employment facilitation programs for Filipino POGO workers to ensure that those displaced from the industry would be absorbed by the labor market.
“This is one of the things that we are worried about—the displacement of Filipino workers,” the senator said.
He urged the DOLE to continue with job fairs and other programs for local POGO workers so those to be displaced would find meaningful jobs, citing DOLE's official head count of Filipino POGO workers of 27,590.
As presiding chair of the ways and means committee, Gatchalian had been pushing for the expulsion of POGOs from the country since two years ago.
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