“Massive post-POGO tasks” launched after the ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) came into effect on January 1st.
According to the nation’s news agency, state lawyers will now start sifting through the inventory of assets of the closed POGO operations, including “cancelling all certificates of birth fraudulently acquired by aliens/foreign nationals and forfeiting their illegally acquired real (estate) properties and other assets in the Philippines”.
According to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), authorities don’t yet know the aggregate value of the assets in question, but “the first order of the day is to take possession of and control over them”.
Congressional investigations have determined that some Chinese nationals had used fake birth certificates to obtain Filipino citizenship, which allowed them to open companies and acquire properties.
Trying to seize the properties in question, however, has been “very slow”, and both the Senate and the House of Representatives are working to pass legislation to authorize the forfeiture of all POGO assets “in favor of the government”. This would include buildings, materials, equipment and proceeds of illegal POGOs.
POGO operations were ordered to completely shut down throughout the country by January 1st of 2025, following a mandate by the President and an Executive Order banning their operation.
