The raid took place on March 13 and the Philippines was immediately in for a shock.

The number of rescued people was staggering: 875, including 432 mainland Chinese nationals, 47 Vietnamese, 8 Malaysians, 3 Taiwanese, 2 Indonesians, and 2 Rwandans. Many were undocumented aliens.

Of the mainland Chinese, six were confirmed to be wanted fugitives in Red China. Acting on a tip, the Presidential Anti Organized Crime Commission secured two court-issued search warrants for alleged human trafficking, serious illegal detention, and hacking scams of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) inside a complex in Bamban, Tarlac.

The sprawling complex itself was a huge surprise. It had 36 multistory buildings. There were VIP villas and an Olympic-size swimming pool. That’s not all. Also found were underground escape tunnels with exits leading to the perimeters. That’s not all as well. The complex was located right behind the Bamban municipal hall. Literally, it was akin to not seeing what was below their noses. Again, that’s not all. The Tarlac provincial government had no idea that a POGO complex existed right within its territory.

What secrets lie in Bamban, Tarlac? If we go by Mayor Alice Guo’s lying serially and big time in her sworn testimonies before the Senate, there appears to be plenty that she is hiding. If we go by the current China defense sprees of Duterte mercenary writers Malou Tiquia, Rigoberto Tiglao, Alan Troy Sasot, and Mark Lopez (see their X account posts), a sinister Chinese plot behind Alice Guo may be about to be laid bare.

Who gets the damage then? There is only one big picture behind the Alice Guo affair that has now taken the country by storm. That picture is Rodrigo Duterte. There was no other enabler of the POGO crimes. Those crimes were already there during his tenure as president.

Duterte laid the groundwork – and created the conditions – for POGO crimes.

“POGOs are clean,” said he in 2020. Who was he speaking to? It was the general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines. For all intents and purposes, it was a policy speech. He justified that money generated from POGOs were being directly remitted to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).

What was the context of his Chinese POGO apologetics? It was the revelation by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in a Senate hearing that at least P14 billion worth of POGO transactions were related to suspicious activities. At that time, POGOs were already linked, not just to money laundering, but also to immigration bribery schemes, illegal recruitment, and human trafficking. AMLC testified before the Senate. Duterte denied the AMLC report.

There was a crackdown on POGO criminal activities then, causing a massive exodus to China. Pre-pandemic, there were about 60 Pagcor-registered POGOs alone operating in Metro Manila. After the crackdown, only about 30 were left. In July 2021, the country was reeling financially from the pandemic lockdowns.

What did Duterte do? He went on television in behalf of POGOs. He said he wants them back. He said the income from the online gambling casinos could raise more funds for his cash-strapped government. Yet he persisted with his enormous non-audit confidential funds. He said his classmate Sonny Dominguez, the finance secretary then, was “happy” with his plan to allow POGOs to operate again. Remember this was a tyrant speaking. All his Cabinet ministers have to put up a happy face.

But the crimes just multiplied. In April 2020, an unregistered POGO was raided in Parañaque city. Seized were 5 firearms, 65 rounds of ammunitions, 400 cell phones, 17 desktop computers, 36 laptops, nine modems and P1.3 million cash. Also seized were 73 Chinese passports and 44 Chinese nationals.

Virtually, there were no lockdowns on POGOs during the pandemic. The Chinese workers were found to have never left the country. In fact, Duterte’s Department of Labor kept on issuing them alien employment permits (AEP). From January to September 2020, there were 83,204 AEPs issued, 81.5% of which were to Chinese nationals.

The rapid expansion of POGOs can be linked to no other than the rising influence of China on the Duterte government. Pagcor admitted that the Chinese gaming hubs proliferated beginning 2016 when the Duterte government initiated regulatory measures in the guise of “regulating” them. Even with the so-called regulation, there were said to have been at least 200 POGOs operating illegally under the Duterte government.

During the Wuhan virus lockdowns, there were also found secret clinics and hospitals catering exclusively to Chinese POGO workers in Metro Manila. Duterte’s officials even argued that POGOs perform an “essential service.” They were then ordered reopened amid the lockdown. Of course, that order came from no other than Rodrigo Duterte.

And then more crimes were added even after he had left office. Crime is a breeding ground that he had let loose. In July 2023, police raided a POGO hub in Las Piñas City. There was alleged human trafficking. But there was also the so-called love or romance scam. The number of those rescued was even bigger than Bamban’s: 1,534 Filipinos and 1,190 foreigners.

By December 2023, POGOs said they operate as offshore gaming, but in reality they had become fronts for such scams as fake shipping, fake online charity, fake shopping websites, fake online sellers, fake free trials, fake Christmas gift cards, fake tech support, fake crypto investment, fake relative/friend, dating, foreign exchange investment, and loans.

And then there is Alice Guo.

We are reaping the whirlwind of Duterte’s power misadventures. Misadventure implies a mishap, a bad luck. No, it was deliberate misgovernance. It was a misrule. Duterte played the China card not for the country’s benefit, but for his own, and then for our demise. – Rappler.com