WHITE GOLD. Salt farmers in Bulacan skillfully harvest salt under the bright sun, carefully scraping crystallized sea water from the ground. Arturo De Vera Jr .
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IN MET R MANILAO
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 268 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES NOVEMBER 10, 2024
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MARCOS ORDERS CEZA: ENFORCE POGO BAN ASAP
PALACE: OTHER OFFSHORE GAMING SHOULD ALSO CEASE OPERATIONS By Charles Dantes and Joel Zurbano
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ALACAÑANG ordered the Cagayan Special Economic Zone Authority to immediately implement the ban on offshore gaming operations, including other offshore gaming that CEZA used to allow. In a memorandum dated November 5, 2024, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin instructed CEZA Administrator Katrina Ponce Enrile to enforce the ban. The directive, issued by the Office of the President, required CEZA to halt all POGOs, internet gaming, and related offshore gaming activities within the zone. The memo is aligned with the newly-signed Executive Order No. 74, which requires the complete shutdown of POGO operations by December 31, 2024. In July, Enrile said while there are no POGOs in the economic zone, there are internet gaming (iGaming) op-
erations that are under CEZA and not under the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. Enrile told lawmakers iGaming started long before POGOs were allowed in the country, and that the POGO concept was actually copied from iGaming. In signing EO 74, President Marcos highlighted the government’s duty to “safeguard national security, maintain public order, uphold the rule of law, protect the safety of its citizens, and ensure the integrity of the social fabric of the nation.” The President first announced his intention to implement a ban during his State of the Nation Address in July 2024.
The ban follows a study by the Department of Finance indicating that the social and economic costs of POGO operations — including rising crime rates, social instability, and exploitation of vulnerable individuals — significantly outweigh any economic benefits. The Anti-Money Laundering Council also raised concerns that POGOs have been associated with money laundering, fraud, and other financial crimes, posing substantial threats to the national financial system. The ban also prohibits any renewal or extension of existing POGO licenses or permits. For her part, Senate Deputy Minority Floor Leader Risa Hontiveros said EO 74 has to be clarified. “While I laud the aims of the Executive Order and am also thankful for the reintegration program for displaced workers, there are still things in the EO that are unclear. The ban on POGO excludes games conducted in PAGCORoperated casinos, licensed casinos, or integrated resorts with junket agreements. This raises questions about
whether offshore online games can be run in casinos or resorts with on-site casinos,” Hontiveros said. “What this only underscores is that we need a clear law to move forward with a meaningful, clear, unequivocal, and comprehensive ban. The AntiPOGO Act of 2024 has been filed in the Senate and I will make sure during the periods of interpellation and amendments that the gaps and holes will be filled,” she added. Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Senator Sherwin Gatchalian praised the President for issuing the executive order reinforcing his earlier directive. “Public welfare and safety must prevail. We have seen the bad effects and exploitation behind POGO operations and they should be banned,” said Estrada. “Over the past several years, the POGO industry has turned the country into a haven for human trafficking, scamming, kidnapping, and other criminalities that have adversely affected many of our people,” added Gatchalian.
SOLON ACCUSES OVP OF ‘OVER-LIQUIDATING,’ USING ‘BOGUS’ DOCUS By Maricel V. Cruz THE Office of the Vice President was accused of “over-liquidating” some P23.8 million in confidential funds through 158 receipts, which 1-Rider party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez said. Gutierrez described the receipts submitted by the OVP as “bogus and spurious.” “So, what you’re saying is they (OVP) exceeded in their liquidation reports?” Rep. Joel Chua of Manila, panel chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability asked Gutierrez. “Your guess is as good as ours.
It could also be that these ARs (acknowledgment receipts) were belatedly prepared,” Gutierrez said, noting that some liquidation papers bore a December 2023 date when no confidential funds were disbursed in this period. All in all, the OVP submitted 158 acknowledgment receipts to the Commission on Audit, covering various transactions, the lawmaker said. “For 158 people to make the same mistake, is that something that would be acceptable? Is that an acceptable margin of error for COA?” Gutierrez asked. “These are clear red flags in relation to the ARs submitted by the
OVP, and this is something that we should consider (legislating).” COA official Gloria Camora earlier told the House committee that there may have been “inadvertence and typographical mistakes” committed by OVP personnel as she also confirmed there was no CIF released in the third quarter of 2023, negating the need for ARs. “One of the findings under the COA notice of suspension is that some ARs were dated December 2023, and some were even undated. They (OVP) said they inadvertently contained clerical or typographical errors indicating 2023 instead of 2022,” she said. But Gutierrez said he was not con-
vinced, noting the “red flags” it raised as they found the ARs to be “spurious and bogus” to say the least. He showed ARs dated November 2022 despite the fact that confidential and intelligence funds were only disbursed a month later in December 2022 where the OVP spent P125 million in just 11 days. There were also ARs bearing not just similar handwritings and same color of ballpens in a common pattern, but also having the same set of signatories like a certain “AAS” and “JOV” who received a total of P280,000 and P920,000 allegedly in December 2022.
US URGES OTHER SCS CLAIMANTS TO FOLLOW PH LEAD IN PASSING OWN MARITIME LAWS By Rachelle Tonelada and Charles Dantes
BOUNTY OF THE SEA. Fishermen from Bolinao head back to shore after a day of fishing along the West Philippine Sea. Dave Leprozo Jr.
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THE United States expressed strong support for the Philippines’ newly enacted maritime laws -- the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act -- and urged the international community to do the same and align its maritime claims with international law as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). “The United States values Philippine leadership in upholding international law,
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particularly in the South China Sea, and calls on all states to comport their maritime claims to the international law of the sea as reflected in the Convention,” the US government said in a statement. “The Maritime Zones Act aligns Philippine domestic laws with the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling. This law defines the Philippines’ internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf in line with the Convention,” Washington added.
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US President-elect Donald Trump
US CHARGES IRANIAN IN PLOT TO KILL TRUMP WORLD | A4
PIMENTEL URGES PBBM: ALLOW RETURN TO ICC NEWS | A3
CANADA ON‘HIGH ALERT’FOR INFLUX OF MIGRANTS FROM US AFTER TRUMP WIN CANADIAN authorities said they’re on “high alert” with all eyes on the US border as the country braces for a possible influx of migrants from the United States. This after US President-elect Donald Trump promised the largest mass deportation in American history, accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.” Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez earlier urged Filipinos illegally staying in the US to leave voluntarily to avoid deportation and perpetual blacklisting. “I can see that the administration of President Trump is really going to be very strict with the immigration policy that he intends to put in place because that is a promise he made to the American public, and that is probably the reason why he won,” Romualdez said. A Fil-Am lawyer, however, said fears of mass deportation of Filipinos are “a little bit overblown.” Lawyer Jath Shao told ANC on Saturday that in the past 24 years, the US has deported around 9.6 million people, of which onlu around 25,000 were Filipino. “We’re not really part of this problem,” he said. During his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021, tens of thousands of migrants, including Haitians stripped of US protections, fled north to Canada. “We’re on high alert,” a Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman, Sergeant Charles Poirier, told Agence France Presse. “All of our eyes are looking at the border to see what’s going to happen... because we know that Trump’s stance on immigration might drive up illegal and irregular migration to Canada,” he said. Immediately following Tuesday’s election, online searches in the United States about moving to Canada jumped tenfold. With AFP
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