POGO HUB IN PASAY RAIDED, 700 WORKERS RESCUED

ANTI-HUMAN trafficking task force over the weekend raided a Philippine Overseas Gaming Operation (POGO) firm operating in Pasay City and rescued 700 workers.

The raid was conducted following reports of alleged illegal activities, including sex trafficking, love and crypto scams happening in the said establishment.

The task force, led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Department of Justice, discovered a self-contained operation in the six-story building on Williams Street in Pasay City.

The building came complete with a nine-room KTV area, a pharmacy with a physician and two patient beds, a restaurant, and a hotpot “shabu-shabu” area.

Nine money vaults were also discovered around the premises.

“Given the abundance of evidence pointing to sex trafficking on said site, an onsite inquest hearing will be done for the filing of criminal charges,” the PAOCC said in a statement on Saturday.

Two male Chinese workers, Shui Niu, 27, and Lu Hao Yu, 22, reportedly approached government agents during the raid and said they were being kept against their will and showed torture marks on their bodies.

Shiu Niu claimed to have been kidnapped and was sold five months ago for P500,000 from another POGO operation while Lu Hao Yu said he was being held for more than a year and made to work 15-hour days.

About 731 workers, including seven Filipinas, were also rescued from an aquarium-style viewing chamber of a massage parlor on the building’s second floor.

“PAOCC will recommend that Smart Web Technology Corp.’s temporary license as an Internet Gaming License (IGL) operator be revoked for allowing human trafficking to take place at their facility. As a result, the building, as well as other assets owned by the aforementioned IGL, will be referred for freezing and maybe confiscated as illegal gains,” the PAOCC said.

Operating teams who conducted the raid were armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Maricris Pahate-Felix of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 35 against a certain “Caic” and “Tein.”

Smart Web was one of two POGOs whose licenses were earlier revoked by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) and later discovered to be operating under a new business name and the new PAGCOR IGL.