EDITORIAL - Emerging scam hub

It’s a reflection of the security situation that foreigners seem to consider the Philippines a haven for illegal activities.

Just weeks after joint teams from the Bureau of Immigration and police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group arrested 244 foreigners mostly Chinese in a raid on an offshore gaming and online scam hub in Zamboanga Sibugay, the National Bureau of Investigation pounced on a similar facility on Thursday, this time in Olongapo City, and rounded up 200 Vietnamese.

The NBI, which conducted the raid based on a search warrant issued by the Olongapo Regional Trial Court, said 200 Vietnamese nationals were taken into custody. Gadgets including computers and mobile phones were seized.

NBI officials said the hub operated around the clock, with teams assigned to target victims in the Philippines, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates. Payments were made through e-wallets, the NBI said.

Two days earlier on Oct. 12, the Bureau of Immigration, with support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, raided another suspected Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator facility reportedly engaged in online scams. BI officials said the POGO was operating near the AFP’s headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo.

Rounded up in the Quezon City raid were 74 Chinese and two Myanmar nationals.

Myanmar, along with Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, have certain areas deemed to be no-man’s land that have served as havens for scam hubs, offshore gaming and drug trafficking. Filipinos have been duped into working in such scam hubs, with several reporting torture and other forms of abuse.

Fugitive gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang, wanted for kidnapping and murders in the Philippines, is believed to have relocated to Cambodia where he has allegedly resumed his gaming operations.

Cambodia has been cracking down on the scam hubs, and there are reports that the foreign operators have been relocating to the Philippines. Gambling including offshore gaming is illegal in China, except in the Macau special administrative region.

One positive development is that Philippine law enforcement agencies are cracking down on the illegal gaming and online scam operations.

The crackdown must be intensified and sustained, in coordination with neighboring countries. The scam hub operators local partners must also be ferreted out. These illegal activities cannot prosper without the connivance of Filipinos.

The Philippines cannot afford to be seen as the new haven for scams and offshore gaming in Southeast Asia.