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.
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