International think tank Stratbase Institute lauds the government’s efforts to ban Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), internet gaming licensees, and other offshore gaming operators.
In a statement released Monday, Stratbase Institute President Dindo Manhit said the think tank fully supports the government’s intensified efforts to dismantle these networks, expose the conniving behavior of authorities who prioritize personal gain over national welfare, and hold all complicit individuals accountable.
The statement was released a day after the official revocation of the licenses of all remaining POGOs in the country.
“The Stratbase Institute strongly condemns the pervasive harm caused by Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), which have become a national menace undermining the very fabric of our society. Far from contributing to economic progress, POGOs have fostered illicit activities that threaten our sovereignty, disrupt social order, and tarnish the Philippines’ reputation as a trusted investment destination,” Manhit said.
Manhit explained that the POGO phenomenon, which initially emerged under the guise of economic stimulation, has instead revealed systemic vulnerability in the country.
These include governance failures to susceptibility to transnational crimes like human trafficking, money laundering, and even espionage activities.
“Particularly alarming are the links to Chinese espionage operations, which exploit POGO networks to gather intelligence, compromise sensitive infrastructure, and undermine national security. Such activities threaten the Philippines’ sovereignty and its strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region, making the elimination of POGOs a matter of urgent national interest,” he explained.
A recent study by the United States Institute of Peace revealed that Southeast Asia has become a significant hub for transnational criminal networks originating from China.
USIP East Asia and Pacific Programs Director Dr. Jennifer Staats said their Institute has been looking at a range of issues at the nexus of transnational crime, violent conflict, and security in Southeast Asia since 2019.
“We were one of the first organizations to publish on the concerning regional implications of the growing presence of PRC-origin transnational organized crime networks on the Thailand-Myanmar border… By 2022, we were seeing that the threats stemming from these Chinese-origin transnational organized crime actors were no longer confined to Burma or to the region, but were going global,” Staats said.
One of the study’s authors, Dr. Alvin Camba, identified the four underlying root causes of the POGO phenomenon in the country.
These include incentives driving various actors to participate, weak data centralization, and enforcement and accountability, and the country’s narrow development strategy.
“The incentive behind POGO, in my view, when it started in 2016 was to create resources available for the previous administration… there needs to be a way to disincentivize political actors from even using POGOs as a source or a means of accumulating economic world in order to launch themselves into political power, and what those disincentives are,” Camba said.
He added another reason for the existence of POGO in the country is China’s strategic security interests in the Philippines. “The presence of POGOs on the adjacent areas of military bases or in the offices of foreign institutions complicates PRC’s efforts. It is unclear whether these are mere coincidences or something more. Moreover, the same infrastructure that supports POGOs could potentially be exploited for espionage or the creation of bots for disinformation campaigns,” Camba explained.
