AN organization of Filipinos working at the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) and their service providers has 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.