Illegal POGOs outside our jurisdiction, says PAGCOR chair

MANILA, Philippines — The gaming regulator has no jurisdiction over illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), PAGCOR Chairperson Alejandro Tengco said Tuesday.

Tengco said he has yet to clarify the scope of the ban with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, but assumes it refers to the licensed POGOs, which have been rebranded as internet gaming licensees or IGLs.

“PAGCOR has no jurisdiction over illegal [POGOs]. So when he meant that we will ‘wind down’ all POGOs, I suppose he was referring to the existing licenses,” he said in an interview on GMA’s DZBB Super Radyo.

The PAGCOR chief noted that the agency has due process in place for the 43 IGLs under its jurisdiction, but has no choice but to comply with the president's order, announced in his State of the Nation Address on Monday.

He estimated that the ban could result in PAGCOR losing around P7 billion in earnings this year, with total losses across government agencies reaching P22-23 billion.

The licensed IGLs employ around 40,000 Filipinos, with 31,000 directly hired and nearly 10,000 working in POGO-affiliated business process outsourcing companies, Tengco said. This figure excludes workers indirectly employed by the industry such as drivers, security guards and service staff.

ALSO READ: Losses vs gains: What will happen to the economy if the government bans POGOs?

The Department of Labor and Employment, meanwhile, said it will implement job placement assistance and other interventions to help transition workers displaced by the POGO ban.

“We have programs that we can grant to the workers that will be displaced from the IGLs,” Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said in a separate radio interview on Tuesday.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, a longtime critic of POGOs, also emphasized the need for a "just transition" to ensure that Filipino POGO workers are taken care of following the phaseout.

“Actually, [IGLs] are a new PAGCOR instrument, it followed old POGO licenses. But with the President’s pronouncements yesterday, it should have been gone too,” Hontiveros said on GMA's "Unang Balita" show. — Gabriell Christel Galang