By Leonardo Micua

 

PRESIDENT BBM’s order to ban the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators in his SONA sent not only a strong message to the world that the Philippines is not a haven for scammers using the digital platform but shockwaves to the syndicates secretly funding their operations.

It was a clear and unequivocal condemnation of this racketeering perpetrated mostly by aliens will not exist in the Philippines soon.

But the report that those managed to escape arrest after the crackdown of the multi-billion POGO hubs in Bamban, Tarlac and Porac, Pampanga, have fanned out to different areas to operate a guerilla-type POGO.

One Chinese scammer was reportedly arrested in La Union before he can set up and organize a mini POGO in one of the beach resorts in that province.

Guerilla-type POGO can also thrive like jueteng which managed to operate with impunity even if the Small Town Lottery authorized by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, was already in business.

My source says it is not remote for Dagupan being eyed as an alternative base of POGOs since one of the personalities being tagged with strong connections to the POGO hubs in Bamban and Porac is an in-law of a political scion in Dagupan. But I hope my source is wrong.

The PAOCC earlier expressed concerns that local hands who learned how to operate POGO from Chinese scammers, may try to operate their own, and that may pose a bigger problem to law enforcers.

For announcing the ban on POGO, PBBM proved that he’s sensitive to public opinion, which is the mark of a good leader, earning praises from his people but scorn from those who benefit and had already enriched themselves from POGO money.

There were reports that if PBBM did not act against POGO, he may soon find incompetent people elected in 2025 using POGO money.

With the ban on POGO, those who schemed to use POGO money in the 2025 election now find themselves deprived of a veritable piggy bank to finance their campaign and buy votes.

As PBBM said, POGO was the purveyor of many evils like corruption, money laundering, human trafficking, prostitution, drug trafficking, kidnapping, torture, murders which are definitely not in the culture of Filipinos.

Wanting to lay their hands on POGO, many Chinese wanted by the law in China, were able not only to illegally enter the Philippines but obtained Philippine passports and citizenship by paying their way into the country, bribing corrupt immigration and PSA officials.

PBBM just saved the nation from becoming the scam capital or crime hub of Asia if not the whole world.

*          *          *          *

As I was writing this column, I received an emergency text alert from the NDRRMC at 8:11 p.m. on 25 July 2024: “Orange Rainfall Warning: Nagbabanta sa Pangasinan ang matinding pag-ulan, pagbaha at pagguho ng lupa.”

At that precise time, rains spawned by the monsoon triggered by Typhoon Carina fortunately already stopped. The only place in Dagupan that was not passable to light vehicles was the junction of Burgos Street, Perez Boulevard and the road leading to Tapuac that was still not elevated.

Hopefully, it was not only a temporary pause as the water level at the Sinocolan River that drains into the Pantal River of Dagupan already measured 6.0 meters above sea level, just one meter lower than the 7.0 masl critical level.

Meanwhile, Mayor Belen Fernandez said the DPWH already secured funding for the elevation of the flooded stretch, from DCNHS to Perez Boulevard and Nazareth Hospital.

Soon as the public bidding for the project at the DPWH regional office is over, the winning bidder will be coordinating with the city government soon.

At the CDRRMC emergency meeting on July 25, Mayor Fernandez announced that it will be the height measurement of the road computed by the City Engineering Office that will prevail, not DPWH’s computation. 

This will be a big relief to owners of business along the stretch to be elevated.

Surely, the seven majority councilors will again try their best to derail this project. Lest they forget, this is a national project that cannot be stopped by a temporary restraining order or injunction from the court. They tried it but failed. 

By the way, some of the evacuees who fled to higher grounds when the flood was rising in their communities in the morning of July 25, have returned home. The big flood prayed for by the opposition councilors to embarrass Belen did not happen.  

Napurnada sila. 

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