DOLE

Pinoy POGO workers get better salaries

October 20, 2022 Ryan Ponce Pacpaco 4996 views

AN official of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has said Filipino workers at the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) cannot find in other employment opportunities the better salary they have been getting from their stable jobs.

“Filipino workers cannot get the salary that they are getting from POGOs from any local employer. Among the 17,000 are the waiters etc. The helpers, they receive at least P10,000 a month,” said Rosalinda Pineda, DoLE’s chief of the Local Employment Bureau.

Pineda made her personal opinion after Antipolo Rep. Reynaldo Acop asked her position on the matter.

The DoLE official initially begged off since the question is better addressed to Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

But should the government decide to ban the POGO, Pineda assured Parañaque City Rep. Gus Tambunting and the panel that DoLE has some measures to help POGO workers, including their families.

Also on Wednesay, an organization of Filipinos working at POGO and their service providers asked the House committee on labor and employment led by Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles to save their jobs from calls to abolish the online gaming platform.

During the Nograles’ panel hearing, Association of Service Providers and POGOs (Aspap) spokesman Paul Bongco and his fellow lawyer Michael Danganan appealed to lawmakers to keep the industry aimed at saving the livelihood of local workers.

“We believe that if the industry will be given more chance, we will be able to help not only the economy but also our Filipino workers,” Bongco said as he cited the P4.9 billion taxes remitted to the government by POGO since the start of 2022 until August alone.

According to Bongco, Aspap is composed of 16 Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation-licensed POGOs and 68 service providers.

According to Bongco, the group said “we have more Filipino employees than foreign nationals” under their employ.

Danganan bared that a driver receives at least P20,000 monthly average in salaries alone, a rate that cannot be found in any local industry.

“We’re not belittling them, but their education gave them very limited opportunities. This is also aside from the other benefits,” Danganan said.

Cavite POGO encoder Jackelyn Ada, who is married with one child, also appealed to the committee during the hearing to keep the industry that provides good income to her family in the past two years.

“We are appealing to the government to adopt an open mind on this. We also have loans to repay,” Ada told House members in Filipino.

Ada said she was ableto build her own house with her POGO salary, and send her sibling to school.

“I was also able to buy appliances too. We have free condominium, and they have provided us with all kinds of accommodations and privileges,” Ada explained further, adding her job involves “online banking.”

Earlier, Nograles, a senior administration lawmaker, called on the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to “practice empathy and fairness” in deporting illegal POGO Chinese workers by way of treating them humanely.

“Let us show the world that we are not a country that demands what it cannot practice in its own shores. We have always been a country known for our humanity,” Nograles maintained.

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