SPECIAL CLASS BPO. Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Mark Villar and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation chairperson Al Tengco (2nd to 4th from left) inspect a Special Class Business Process Outsourcing in Aseana, Parañaque City on Friday (Sept. 13, 2024). Villar, who chairs the Committee on Games and Amusement, assured that SCBPOs will not be included in the implementation of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s directive to shut down Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators before the year ends. (Photo courtesy of Sen. Villar office)
MANILA – Workers of the Special Class Business Process Outsourcing (SCBPOs) will not be affected by the total ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in the country, Senator Mark Villar guaranteed on Friday.
Villar made the assurance after leading the inspection of SCBPOs located in Aseana, Parañaque City with Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairperson Al Tengco.
“Sa mga susunod na hearings sa Senado, makaka-asa ang ating SCBPO workers na hindi sila makakasama sa mga ipapasara bago matapos ang taon. Hindi po mawawalan ng trabaho ang ating mga kababayan (In the next hearings in the Senate, our SCBPO workers are assured that they will not be among those who will be shut down before the end of the year. Our countrymen will not lose their jobs),” Villar said.
Villar said he fully supports the shutting down of illegal POGOs but will make sure that no Filipino will be aggrieved by ensuring the efficient implementation of the President's directive.
The chairperson of the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement conducted the inspection to better understand how SCBPOs operate.
“Ginagawa po natin ang inspection na ito upang makita ang operations ng mga SCBPO at maintindihan kung ano ang ka-ibahan nila sa mga POGO na ipapasara natin bago matapos ang taon na ito (We are doing this inspection to see the operations of the SCBPOs and understand how they differ from the POGOs that we will close down before the end of this year),” he said.
Tengco said SCBPOs under the regulation of PAGCOR employ over 4,900 Filipino workers and 137 foreign nationals.
“Dito po sa SCBPOs, 95 percent po nito, requirement po ng guidelines ng PAGCOR kailangan po ay Filipino workers. So, ‘yun po ang malaking pagkakaiba ng POGO dito sa SCBPO (Here in the SBPOs, 95 percent of them, as required by the PAGCOR guidelines, must be Filipino workers. So, that's the big difference between POGO and SCBPO)," Tengco said during the previous hearing of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
If SCBPOs under all investment promotion agencies (IPAs) are included, he said the total will reach 10,000 Filipino workers.
Tengco also clarified that SCBPOs are only service providers for land-based gaming entities abroad and do not take bets.
After Marcos declared the total ban on POGOs during his third State of the Nation Address in July, PAGCOR suspended the issuance of new licenses for SCBPOs.
Holistic approach
Meanwhile, Senator Win Gatchalian said a holistic approach is needed to effectively execute the President’s directive to ban all POGO operations.
“The approach should be holistic and cover all facets of the President’s declaration. The end goal is for the country to have a smooth winding down of POGO operations,” Gatchalian said in a news release on Friday.
He emphasized that the focus should extend beyond entities licensed by the PAGCOR, noting that around 200 illegal POGO hubs are currently active in the country as estimated by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).
Gatchalian stressed the need for law enforcement to target illegal POGOs still operating to ensure they are completely eliminated.
He said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) should coordinate closely with PAGCOR to ascertain the value of gross gaming revenue (GGR) generated by each Internet Gaming Licensee, which is what POGOs are called now.
Gatchalian noted that past congressional hearings revealed a deficiency of PHP2 to PHP5 billion in collectibles, referring to discrepancies between the GGR declared by POGOs to PAGCOR and the GGR submitted to the BIR for tax purposes.
“The GGR is the basis of payments to both PAGCOR and BIR, but PAGCOR, as the regulator, has a mechanism to verify the actual GGR. However, the declarations to the BIR are often undervalued,” he said. “Kung may utang at umalis na sila, paano pa natin mahahabol (If they have loans and have already left, how we can run after them)?”
Gatchalian also flagged a discrepancy in the number of alien employment certificates (AEP) issued by the Bureau of Immigration and the number of work permits issued to POGO foreign workers by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
PAGCOR reported that as of July, there are 26,431 foreign workers in the POGO industry.
DOLE, however, reported issuing only 15,819 AEPs this year. (With a report from Leonel Abasola/PNA)
