MANILA: Government agencies signed on Wednesday (April 22) a set of rules which “will put the final nail in the coffin” of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) and “prevent their resurrection in a different form.”
Executive Secretary Ralph Recto (pic) led the signing in Malacanang of the “Inter-Agency Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on the Implementation of Executive Order No. 74” that President Marcos issued on Nov 4, 2024. It bans all Pogos and internet gaming licensees (IGLs).
Crafted with the expertise of partners from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the SOP also implements Republic Act No. 12312 or the “Anti-Pogo Act of 2025” signed by Marcos on Oct. 23, 2025.
Recto said the guidelines “will also clean up the mess the social scourge left behind, from trafficked people who need help, to disposal of buildings in sprawling scam cities.”
Malacanang did not provide reporters with a copy of the SOP, which Recto said merges provisions under RA 12312, EO 74, and 15 other laws and department orders into “one omnibus action plan.”
He added that the SOP establishes “a unified and legally compliant workflow” to address illegal Pogos and IGLs and related crimes, from intelligence gathering through operations, evidence handling prosecution and asset preservation.
The SOP will change the government approach “from merely shutting down hubs to preserving assets, seizing illicit resources, securing convictions, protecting victims and cutting these criminal enterprises off from the financial and corporate networks that sustain them,” Recto said.
“This comes at a crucial time, because Pogos are an ever-evolving menace, deeply enmeshed in transnational crime networks, and all too capable of reappearing under new names, new fronts and new methods each time they are struck, unless government remains vigilant, coordinated and relentless,” he stressed.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission will take the lead in enforcing the SOP as the principal coordinating agency, while the Department of Justice will embed prosecutors in the earlier part of case build-ups to improve the certainty of conviction.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Securities and Exchange Commission will also be mobilized for financial and corporate intelligence on “the fruits of the illicit activities.”
In July 2024, Recto, as finance secretary, recommended to the President a ban on Pogos and IGLs, saying that “whatever revenues [they] claimed to generate could never justify the lawlessness, exploitation, and social decay they left behind.”
At the height of the pandemic, there were at least 60 Pogos and more than 200 Pogo service providers in the country, mostly managed by Chinese nationals.
Marcos announced the total Pogo ban in his State of the Nation Address on July 22, 2024, citing the massive surge of crimes related to the industry, including “financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder.”
Authorities, however, said at least 100 “rogue” Pogos continue to clandestinely operate in residential houses, hotels, and even resorts after they were ordered to halt all operations effective Dec. 31, 2024. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
