For good reason, POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations) remained the most read news in the past week. Foremost of the Philippine security officials’ concern is their close proximity to the country’s military bases. It is not considered yet a “national security threat,” clarified Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. but nonetheless the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency is investigating the matter. Are POGOs China’s “Trojan Horse” in the country? NICA chief Ricardo de Leon wants to know.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is also conducting a “thorough review” of the “potential risks” posed by POGO sites near military bases, its spokesperson, Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, said last week.
At its peak during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte, there were more than 300 POGOs operating throughout the country, with a peak of 300,000 workers, mostly Chinese. Can you imagine even at its estimated Chinese workforce of 30,000, billions of Chinese capital circulating in the country, and Chinese influence creeping into local government units? Shouldn’t this be a cause for concern? Anyway, police have ordered a massive crackdown on some 250 unlicensed POGO operations throughout the country.
Teodoro had warned of the “national security concerns’ raised by criminal syndicates, involved in human trafficking, kidnaping and money laundering, posing as POGO operations.
What is even more concerning is the fact that several People’s Liberation Army uniforms, medal and other military gear have been found in police searches in the illegal POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga.
It turns out, according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros, that the person who helped facilitate the Porac POGO is former Technology and Resource Center deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, who was convicted in the (Philippine Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also known as the pork barrel scam. Cunanan was listed as representative for the registration of POGOs in Porac, Bamban and Laoag.
Another former official during the time of Duterte, Harry Roque, is listed a legal representative of the Porac POGO, according to another Rappler investigation.
Rappler’s contribution economist JC Punongbayan analyzes – obviously from an economist’s point of view – the costs and benefits of POGOS.
A House of Representatives’ bill totaling banning POGO
Of course, the teleserye on Alice Guo continues to grip the nation. Is “Guo Hua Ping” the real Alice Guo? Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian raised this question on Tuesday, citing documents from the Board of Investments (BOI) and Bureau of Immigration (BI) as legislators investigating Alice Guo continue to try to establish the suspended Bamban mayor’s true identity.
Guo the next day categorically denied she is Guo Hua Ping through her lawyer, Atty. Stephen David.
Mayor Alice Guo is innocent and ready to cooperate with the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC). Guo’s representatives from David and Jamilla Law Office delivered a letter to Malacañang addressed to Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who chairs the PAOCC.
The PAOCC announced on Saturday that Guo would face criminal charges next week, including human trafficking, due to alleged illegal activities in a compound behind her town’s municipal hall.
And now for the bigger drama. After many signals, Vice President Sara Duterte finally and officially split from the Marcos administration by resigning as Education Secretary and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) vice chairperson.
Exactly one week earlier during Davao Citys’ Philippine Independence Day made it very clear when she said the UniTeam no longer exists and that it was good only for the 2022 presidential elections. “The UniTeam was a tandem during the 2022 elections. The elections are over, we won and we are grateful to those who supported us,” Duterte said.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte has also started talking again against the Marcos administration. Duterte accused the government of “overkill” in its hunt for controversial televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, claiming that policemen used “excessive force” to enter and search the properties of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) leader.
And now back to the West Philippine Sea, where tensions have run high in the last several months. After China’s law allowing the China Coast Guard to detain “trespassers in the area clearly within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone became effective on June 15, a CCG ship rammed a Philippine ship, resulting in injuries to eight Filipino servicemen, including one who lost his thumb. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder called China’s behavior in the recent WPS ramming “provocative,” warning that it could escalate into “more violence.”
What Chinese coast guard personnel did in the WPS on June 17 – boarding a Philippine government ship, wielding machetes and knives to puncture navy boats, and seizing disassembled rifles – constitute “piracy” and Beijing should pay for the damage, AFP chief Gen. Robert Brawner Jr. said.
From June 16 to 17, the weekend the “trespassers” policy became enforceable, Philippines, US, Japanese, and Canadian vessels sailed the Philippine EEZ, which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea. It’s the first time for the Royal Canadian Navy to join a multilateral sail in the West Philippine Sea. There was no untoward incident.
The Chinese Navy conducted it own drills inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone while the Philippines was celebrating its 126th Independence Day on June 12, a move obviously made to spite the country. The Chinese ships stepped over our sovereignty unchallenged on the day of our independence.
Maybe we should listen to Rep. Joseph Ace Barbers, who suggested a tit-for-tat approach to Chinese aggression. Barbers said the Philippines should give China a dose of its own medicine by arresting Chinese “trespassers” in the country’s exclusive economic zone. Barbers said Chinese vessels should first seek permission from the Philippine government if they will go into the WPS.
In the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister signaled a break in its coalition war government when he disbanded the War Cabinet following the resignation of opposition leader Benny Gantz. The War Cabinet was set up five days after the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas.
The Israeli military has announced a “tactical pause” of military activity along a route in southern Gaza to allow aid to be distributed but stressed that there would be no let up in fighting in and around Rafah in southern Gaza.
In Europe, Ukraine gained major support from world leaders in the G7 Meeting and the Peace Summit on Ukraine in Switzerland. On the sides of the G7 meeting in Italy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement with US President Joe Biden aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders.
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies agreed to engineer a $50-billion loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival. Interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral.
At the end of the Swiss-hosted Peace Summit, world leaders on Sunday backed Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity, and the need for eventual talks with Russia on ending the war — but left the key questions of how and when unresolved.
Whether it would happen soon seems impossible with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Russia will only end its war in Ukraine if Kyiv surrenders the entirety of four regions claimed by Moscow and abandons its bid to join NATO – terms Kyiv immediately dismissed as a “complete sham” and “offensive to common sense.”
Here in the United States, for most of the week, somebody not named Trump was at the center of the legal horizon. Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, became the first offspring of a sitting president to be convicted of criminal charges. A federal jury convicted Hunter Biden of federal gun charges − lying on a federal screening form about his drug use, lying to a gun dealer and possessing the gun.
President Biden said Thursday that he would not pardon his son Hunter or commute any sentence following Hunter’s conviction on charges of lying about his drug addiction while buying a handgun.
First lady Jill Biden discussed Hunter Biden’s trial with NBC News during a campaign swing Saturday, the first time she has commented on his conviction after he was found guilty on three felony gun-related charges. Biden said the trial marked “a tough week for my family,” explaining that they “had to relive … the tough times.”
The US Supreme Court made two important decisions the past week, one that would make the liberals happy and the other the conservatives happy. In a blow for anti-abortion advocates, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available.
The next day, the Supreme Court said devices that turn a semi-automatic rifle into something closer to a machine gun are legal, a win for gun rights advocates and a blow to efforts to reduce gun violence that has besieged the nation.
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