Ayon sa Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), tinatayang nasa 40,000 Pinoy na nagtatrabaho sa 43 na mga legal na POGO ang maaapektuhan sa kautusang ito ng pangulo. Ang plano ng PAGCOR sa pagpapatupad ng total POGO ban at sa mga manggagawang Pilipino na mawawalan ng trabaho, panoorin sa video. #TheMangahasInterviews
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00:00Do you have a detailed plan, step-by-step, on how to close down Pogo?
00:06The good news, to answer your question, we held a meeting of the Department of Labor and Employment.
00:14Okay.
00:15It was led by Secretary Benelique Guzman.
00:19If you can remember, the President's order was not only on Pagpon.
00:27After he announced that he will instruct Pagpon to wind down Pogo's operations,
00:41there was a pandemonium inside the Congress.
00:45But the next thing he said was, I am also ordering DOLE and my economic managers to talk to each other
01:00so that we can see how we can minimize the loss of our Filipino workers.
01:10Let's talk about the numbers involved. How many will close down Pogo?
01:16And what is the winding down process? How will they be able to say, sorry guys, time's up?
01:24First, I would like to clarify, the ban that the President ordered is for everyone and not just for Pogo.
01:39I would like to clarify that in the middle of last year, 2023, we should have declared in the probationary status
01:55208, more or less, licenses. After the monitoring, after the negotiation, we saw that the licensees that I'm referring to are no longer involved in the gaming operations.
02:24More or less. What they're doing is not gaming anymore. It's a criminal activity.
02:32Okay. There's the credit card fraud. There's the investment scams.
02:40So after we saw that, we immediately decided to declare the status of all of them as probationary.
02:50We asked them to reapply because we saw, and besides that, we changed the balance and guidelines of overseas gaming licenses.
03:09Because the image of the term Pogo is very bad, we should have rebranded it as IGL. That's why it became Internet Gaming Licenses.
03:25So that way, we're able to distinguish between the legal and the illegals.
03:33What's clear now is that when we purged the list, the number fell to 46.
03:4346.
03:45When it fell to 46, the monitoring and enforcement fell to zero. Three of them are suspended.
03:56That's why we're talking about 43 licenses that we call Internet Gaming Licenses.
04:11So Chairman, that's the concern of some. When you said there's no license and you declared it illegal, what's the next step?
04:18Are you asking for help from the police or the NBI to padlock and confiscate all the documents,
04:27equipment, and to save the people, Filipinos or foreigners?
04:31You know, Ma'am Malu, we have been coordinating.
04:35The two leading agencies are the Department of Interior and Local Government because they are in charge of the police.
04:48We have been closely coordinating with them. We're giving the information as to who has no license.
05:03That's updated. The entire police force is updated.
05:07But the problem is that the authorities are lacking.
05:12Like the PAHO, they don't have a condom.
05:16Correct.
05:16How will they have the opportunity to go around the Philippines and monitor or have intelligence?
05:27Okay. All right.
05:28So it's easy to say, Chairman, even if we say there's a total ban, you will not be given a license, all licenses will be withdrawn.
05:38But there are 250 that have no license and are possibly operating underground.
05:44So it means that this is not just a problem of PAG-COR, it's a problem of public order,
05:50it's a problem of other offices like our local officials, the administration, and other groups like DILG.
06:01So how will that be? It's not enough that there's a total ban. Do you have a complete plan?
06:07You know, Ma'am Malu, that's my concern.
06:12Because I believe, even if we execute PAG-COR with DOLE, with other departments or government agencies,
06:24even if we follow the President's order to totally ban all the pogos around the country,
06:36it will be a big problem for us and it will be a big challenge for the local government units,
06:44for the authorities, police authorities, and our government on how we can stop these pogos.
06:57That will be a big challenge.
07:00Because I believe, and many believe, that they will not return to the country where they came from.
07:11Especially in a country where we know that totally banning pogos is prohibited.
07:19If you are caught pogging, whether it's yesterday, today, or tomorrow,
07:27I believe you will go straight to jail and you will be judged there.
07:34Why will they return? They will just stay here.