CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte on Thursday said he wants to know what the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on the watch of its Secretary John Ivan Uy has done thus far in the government’s crackdown on illegal gambling websites of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and the prosecution of these errant operators and their betting agents.

Villafuerte, who is majority leader of the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA), recalled that during the CA’s confirmation hearing in 2022 on Uy’s Cabinet posting, the Secretary had assured lawmakers that his Department would—in tandem with gaming regulators and law enforcers—shut down illegal gambling websites and then file cases against the POGO operators and their bet collectors.

“We would like to know from the IT expert Secretary Ivan (Uy) what the DICT, on his watch, has done so far as regards his 2022 commitment to close down the illegal online gaming sites and then throw the books at these POGOs that have been operating their homepages without Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) permits,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte, who is National Unity Party (NUP) president, said he had proposed to Uy two years ago during his CA confirmation process to work with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Pagcor on shutting down illegal online gaming sites and filing cases in court against their illicit operators along with their betting agents and bettors.

Uy then assured legislators during that CA hearing that, “The DICT would work together with the Pagcor and NBI on finally putting out of business all illegal gaming websites and then prosecuting their errant operators and betting agents along with the bettors,” he said.

In fact, said Villafuerte, he told Uy after getting that commitment from the DICT secretary at that hearing that it would not be enough to just close down these illegal online gaming sites because their operators will most likely open new sites within five minutes of their shutdown.

“Criminal cases must be filed immediately against illicit operators to cripple their lucrative operations. The betting agents and bettors must be prosecuted as well,” he said.

Pagcor chairman-CEO Alejandro Tengco said that only 46 POGOs have Pagcor licenses to operate, and these firms have rebranded themselves as Internet gaming licensees (IGLs).

Most of these IGLs are located in Metro Manila, he said.

Tengco was quoted in media reports as saying that about 250 POGOs are operating without Pagcor permits and may be involved in crimes.

The POGOs operating without licenses, he said, include the two firms that authorities had separately raided in Bamban, Tarlac and Porac, Pampanga Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Capas, Tarlac.

The offices of Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Bamban and Lucky South 99 in Porac were raided by the authorities on their suspected involvement in assorted Internet-based scams.

Villafuerte said he supported the view of Speaker Martin Romualdez that law-abiding POGOs can be allowed to operate while the illegal operators should be arrested and their websites shut down at once.

“For me, what’s important is that all (POGO) stakeholders must follow the rule of law. And for those who will violate our laws, then I must say you’ll be sorry because our law enforcers will definitely be going after you. We will implement our law to the fullest,” Romualdez said. ““That is why if they are doing everything illegal, then they will really be arrested. But if they will just be law-abiding, then I don’t think we will have any problems.”

Tengco said the raided POGOs “do not have licenses and they operate illegally … They are basically criminal syndicates involved in criminal activities like scamming operations.”

From almost 300 POGOs during the former Duterte Administration, the current Pagcor management has given licenses to only 46 IGLs, of which 43 are still operating.

Pagcor data furnished the House showed that this firm collected P7.96 billion from 298 POGO licensees in 2019, P2.99 billion from 158 licensees in 2022, and P5.1 billion from 87 licensees in 2023.

If POGOs were banned completely, Tengco said “it would become harder for us to monitor them, and the number of illegal operators would grow and pose a bigger headache to our law enforcement authorities.”

Villafuerte pointed out that Executive Order (EO) 13, which was issued by then-President Duterte in 2017, declared as “illegal gambling” all activities and services directly or indirectly related to gambling but are beyond the territorial jurisdiction or supervision of the government authority that issues the licenses for this activity.

The CamSur congressman said that PD No. 1869 of 1983, or the Pagcor Charter, as amended by Republic Act (RA) No. 9487 of 2007, mandated Pagcor to operate and license gambling casinos and other similar recreation places within the territorial jurisdiction of the Philippines—except for the games under the supervision of other franchising entities.

Villafuerte said that under its Charter, Pagcor was tasked to coordinate with other concerned government agencies along with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), and local government units (LGUs) in taking appropriate action against violators in accordance with the law.

In the CA panel hearing in 2022 on Uy’s Cabinet posting, Villafuerte told the then-Secretary-designate that, “We just want to ask your (Uy) commitment, sana kayo po ang mag-spearhead with Pagcor and NBI not only to close down the sites because you can shut down the sites eh, in 5 minutes they can put these up again. But my point is cases have to be filed because you can actually log in and put money in an e-wallet and gamble.”

Uy then assured Villafuerte that his Office will set up such a task force with the NBI and Pagcor to run after these illegal online gaming operators.

“We will immediately set up a unit in order to address this in coordination with the other agencies like Pagcor,” said Uy.

Villafuerte then said at the hearing that, “First of all, it’s incumbent upon not only Pagcor but also of the DICT and NBI to form a team to crack down on these illicit sites because if it’s unregulated or unlicensed, it’s prone to fraud. You know you can put in money and you want to play but it’s fraudulent they can just shut down the websites.”

“Secondly, billions of pesos are being lost because of these illegal sites,” said Villafuerte.

Villafuerte said at the CA hearing that, “Regarding yung illegal online gaming, we have received a lot of texts about jackpots, alleged jackpots, about all of these and … I asked my staff to investigate this. All the texts that we have been receiving are coming from illegal, unlicensed, unregulated companies and websites.”

“So, you know, actually you can easily know who these people are. So unfortunately nothing is being done about this problem about illegal online gaming sites,” Villafuerte said.

“So sana po mapahinto ninyo ito dahil you have the power not only to shut down these online illegal sites but to actually prosecute and file cases against them. So please kawawa po ang gobyerno, kawawa po ang tao if this goes on. And if you ask our colleagues here, I believe they too have received such complaints … ang dami pong texts and the telcos (telecommunications companies) have already banned the sites.”

He said, for example, that he had read about panalo.com, which uses a comma instead of a dot to get away apparently with the artificial intelligence (AI) system of the Telcos to detect this type of text messages. So imbes na jackpot yung com ginagawang zero.”