Gambling capital

The bombshell revelation of Alejandro “Al” Tengco, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCor), may be likened to an improvised explosive device (IED) he triggered while he was still holding on to it. In a press statement he issued over the weekend, Tengco accused a certain former Cabinet official as allegedly “trying to intercede for POGOs,” or the Philippine Online Gaming Operators. 

Tengco did not identify if this ex-Cabinet man is an appointee of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., or appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte. Tengco blamed this unnamed ex-Cabinet official for the many illegal POGOs, eight of which were so far discovered and dismantled by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC). 

Tengco vowed to unmask this ex-Cabinet man and other personalities allegedly “lobbying” for POGO license before the proper investigating body. But whoever these lobbyists are, it behooves Tengco to inform or complain, and ask the OP or the PAOCC to immediately check or look into. After all, both the PAOCC and PAGCor are directly under the Office of the President (OP).

Or, he should have brought this out at the ongoing joint Senate public hearing. From their raids one after the other of the PAOCC, these illegal POGO hubs were found in Clark Freeport in Pampanga and in Bamban, Tarlac last March this year.

The Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality chaired by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and the Senate committee on ways and means headed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian started the public hearings way back May 22 this year. Gatchalian filed three of the five Senate Resolutions that sought this inquiry in aid of legislation on these reported illegal POGO hubs.

But why did the PAGCor chairman and CEO wait this long before he came out with this revelation?

As of last estimates by PAOCC executive director retired Police Gen. Gilbert Cruz, there are about close to 300 illegal POGOs clandestinely running in various parts of the country. Todate, the eight illegal POGOs raided by inter-agency law enforcement teams have rounded up hundreds of foreign nationals, mostly Chinese