{"id":299878,"date":"2023-11-21T08:37:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T14:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=299878"},"modified":"2023-11-21T12:00:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T18:00:18","slug":"philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ongoing scandal involving the Philippine Online Gaming Operator<\/a> (POGO) segment continues to cause more work for authorities across all government ranks. Now, a complete review of all foreign nationals who received work permits or other authorization to work in the country is necessary.<\/p>\n

\"A
A view of Metro Manila in the Philippines from the air. The country continues its fight against illegal POGOs. (Image: Brigada News<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced last week that it is currently undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the Alien Employment Permits (AEPs). The review covers more than 42K foreign individuals employed by POGOs, according to the Philippine News Agency<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Labor Undersecretary Benjo Benavidez said during a press conference that the DOLE is ready to take action against any foreign worker who may have participated in illegal activities. This includes the cancellation or revocation of AEPs, and in some cases, potential jail time.<\/p>\n

POGOs Taxing Government Resources<\/h2>\n

This development follows a directive from the Senate last week urging the government agency to conduct a thorough review of the AEPs that foreigners working in POGOs have received. The call for scrutiny comes in the wake of recent raids on POGO establishments in Para\u00f1aque City<\/a> and Pasay City.<\/p>\n

The AEP, similar to a work visa in the U.S., is a crucial permit issued to nonresident individuals or foreign nationals seeking employment in the Philippines. Foreign workers must apply for and obtain an AEP before legally working in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those raids revealed a lack of operational licenses and allegations of involvement in illicit activities such as sex trafficking<\/a> and hubs for operating online scams. There was also evidence that some of the workers may have illegally received an AEP or other permit. This revelation could eventually lead to criminal charges against government officials who approved the permits.<\/p>\n

In many cases, the illegal granting of an AEP paved the way for some individuals to receive Philippine passports for as little as PHP500,000 (US$9,020). As a result, an unknown number of current passport holders could be foreign nationals with ties to criminal activity who were never properly vetted.<\/p>\n

This, for some legislators, has become a grave threat to the Philippines\u2019 national security.<\/p>\n

POGO-Related Crime Rages On<\/h2>\n

The Philippines has been trying to eradicate illegal and scandalous gaming operators in hopes of cleaning up its image. For all of its efforts over the past two years, there are still huge issues that pop up.<\/p>\n

\n

About a week ago, police reported an incident involving international workers in Pampanga, where two lives were lost and another individual sustained severe gunshot wounds<\/a>. The dead were from China and Malaysia, while the injured man was also from China. He had been shot five times, but survived.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Authorities are linking the attack to a possible kidnapping attempt related to POGO activities. There were reportedly two more individuals traveling with the three victims, but their whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n

This past weekend, police arrested five people assumed to be working for an illegal POGO. The National Bureau of Investigation said that there were four adults and a minor. The minor was carrying a firearm, which he later said he was forced to do by the adults so they could try to avoid harsher penalties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ongoing scandal involving the Philippine Online Gaming Operator (POGO) segment continues to cause more work for authorities across all government ranks. Now, a complete review of all foreign nationals who received work permits or other authorization to work in the country is necessary. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced last week that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":299876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,21],"tags":[81913,13766,13520],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhilippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Philippines is investigation tens of thousands of work permits received by foreign nationals to work in POGOs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Philippines is investigation tens of thousands of work permits received by foreign nationals to work in POGOs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-21T14:37:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-21T18:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"637\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/\",\"name\":\"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-21T14:37:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-21T18:00:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\"},\"description\":\"The Philippines is investigation tens of thousands of work permits received by foreign nationals to work in POGOs.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":637,\"caption\":\"A view of Metro Manila in the Philippines from the air. The country continues its fight with illegal POGOs. (Image: Brigada News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\",\"name\":\"Erik Gibbs\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Erik Gibbs\"},\"description\":\"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits - Casino.org","description":"The Philippines is investigation tens of thousands of work permits received by foreign nationals to work in POGOs.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits - Casino.org","og_description":"The Philippines is investigation tens of thousands of work permits received by foreign nationals to work in POGOs.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-11-21T14:37:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-21T18:00:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":637,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erik Gibbs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erik Gibbs","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/","name":"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-21T14:37:09+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-21T18:00:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca"},"description":"The Philippines is investigation tens of thousands of work permits received by foreign nationals to work in POGOs.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/A-view-of-Metro-Manila-in-the-Philippines-from-the-air.jpg","width":1080,"height":637,"caption":"A view of Metro Manila in the Philippines from the air. The country continues its fight with illegal POGOs. (Image: Brigada News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippine-authorities-investigating-pogos-and-foreigner-work-permits\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Philippine Authorities Investigating POGOs and Foreigner Work Permits"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca","name":"Erik Gibbs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","caption":"Erik Gibbs"},"description":"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299878"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299954,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299878\/revisions\/299954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}