PNP-AKG, Advisers, Eleazar discuss plans to end casino, POGO kidnappings
PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar on Thursday morning met officers of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) and its Advisory Council to discuss proposed measures to put an end to casino/Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO)-related kidnappings in the country.
The PNP-AKG headed by newly-promoted Brigadier Gen. Rudolph B. Dimas and the PNP-AKG Advisory Council chaired by FEU professor Liana M. Barro presented to Eleazar 34 recommendations to end casino/POGO-related kidnappings which were agreed upon by participants in a 2019 Anti-Kidnapping Summit in Quezon City.
Himself a former anti-kidnapping official, being an original member of the former Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response who sent to jail dozens of kidnappers in the country in the early 2000, the PNP chief said he will discuss the anti-kidnapping recommendations with officials of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).
Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order official Architect Ka Kuen Chua and Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy State Prosecutor Olivia L. Torrevillas, both members of the PNP-AKG Advisory Council, also joined the meeting.
The recommendations were reached during the anti-kidnapping summit workshop which was participated in by representatives from different foreign embassies, hotels, casinos, Pagcor, DOJ and other law enforcement agencies. It was initiated by former PNP-AKG director, now Police Regional Office 5 director, Brig. Gen. Jonnel C. Estomo.
The recommendations include the need for full cooperation of foreign embassies, hotels and casinos to the PNP in general and the PNP-AKG in particular; approaches to be implemented to deter kidnappings and ease the process of investigation for the early resolution of reported cases; and the provision of penalties and sanctions to individuals/groups involved in casino/POGO-related kidnappings including uncooperative victims.
They also include the need to grant the PNP-AKG visitorial powers over casinos and POGOs, sanctions for casino operators/management having casino-related kidnapping-for-ransom cases with loan shark modality; a recommendation to give hotel/casino operators the prerogative to ban uncooperative victims specifically those who are not pursuing complaints before the police; the need for Pagcor to be given authority to penalize repeat offenders in kidnapping and other illegal activities taking place inside casinos and POGO establishments.
Another is the recommendation to declare as “undesirable aliens” foreign nationals involved in feigned/hoax kidnappings and other offenses and to deport them immediately to their country of origin and permanently ban them from entering the Philippines; the speedy trial of cases involving foreign nationals; and the need to consider being a foreigner as an aggravating circumstance in case they are found to be involved in casino/POGO-related kidnappings.
There is also the recommendation to craft policies/laws to tighten the issuance of work permits to foreign nationals projected to work in casinos/POGOs in the country; and the trial in absentia or through embassy representation for cases with foreign nationals as either complainant/s or respondent/s and/or witness/es.
