MANILA: A total of 187 Chinese nationals apprehended is separate operations against Philippine online gaming operators (Pogo) establishments were deported recently, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Friday (Dec 6).
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the Chinese nationals were sent back to China on Thursday afternoon.
They were among those apprehended during operations conducted with the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission in Pasay City and Cebu.
The deportees have been added to the agency’s immigration blacklist, permanently barring them from re-entering the country.
“Their deportation serves as a clear message that illegal activities by foreign nationals will not be tolerated,” Viado said in a statement.
The BI was supposed to deport 190 Chinese nationals, but only 187 were boarded since one had a hold departure order while the two had other pending cases in the country.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong R. Marcos Jr. announced a total ban on Pogo during his State of the Nation Address in July, and gave them until the end of the year to wrap-up their operations.
Last October, the BI said at least 12,000 foreign Pogo workers filed applications to downgrade their working visas after Marcos’ order. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
