Manila after POGO

From luxury vehicles covered with the thickest dust left abandoned in parking lots to empty office buildings, to tens of thousands of jobless workers and, of course, the crimes, there’s now a long list of unusual things that one will find in the exit trail of the Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs.

In one posh condominium in Makati for instance, there are dozens and dozens of Alphards and Mercedes Benzes that are now covered in dust ever since their POGO owners hurriedly packed their Manila lives into suitcases of different shapes and sizes, and left the Philippines to return to China, or wherever home may be.

The condominium managers and unit owners don’t know for sure what to do with these abandoned vehicles because while they’re already paid for by their POGO owners – who generally paid for their condominium leases one year in advance, and their vehicle purchases in cash – they were just left in the basement with no proper turnover of documents to anyone, whether to a car seller or to charity.

Without proper turnover or documents, nobody has jurisdiction over these cars. These cars, of course, pose a challenge to unit owners in finding new tenants as they don’t have parking spaces to offer.

As early as July, property consultant David Leechiu had already noticed that second hand vans have been flooding the market but this is the first time I heard from condominium developers that some of these vehicles were just abandoned by their owners.

Office buildings

There are a lot of empty office buildings too and property developers, although most of them are denying or downplaying the impact of the POGO exit on their business, are feeling the pinch.

There’s no denying that POGOs’ exit has affected Metro Manila’s office market.

Global investment management company Colliers has already said that the exodus would push the vacancy rate to more than 20 percent by yearend.

By end-2024, Colliers expects vacancy to reach 22 percent from 19.3 percent in 2023 due to the POGO ban.

POGOs occupied about 489,000 square meters of office space in Metro Manila as of end-June, or about 3.5 percent of the total office stock, Colliers said.

President Marcos announced the ban in July and since then, most POGOs have already started winding down their operations.

Displaced workers

More troubling impact of the POGO exodus, however, is on Filipino workers left jobless by the ban.

While the negative impact of POGOs far outweighs the industry’s economic benefits, the fact remains that the death of the industry has left many workers jobless.

Some POGOs employed as many as 20,000 Filipino workers per company. These include those well-dressed lady casino dealers and other support staff.

Perhaps, there should be a post-POGO task force that would handle the impact of the POGO exit, including helping displaced workers find new jobs.

The underworld

As for the illegal POGOs, the Marcos administration must make sure that all these congressional investigations on Alice Guo and the POGO empire in her rabbit hole are not for naught.

As I said in a previous column, these hearings must mean more for Filipinos than just killing the goose that laid the golden eggs especially for the previous administration, following the break up of UniTeam.

Beyond Alice Guo, the government must follow through on this issue and bring to justice everyone involved – from syndicates within the bureaucracy who enabled an environment where such criminal organizations could operate.

These include those involved in the production of falsified documents including birth certificates and passports; individuals in LGUs that allowed such businesses to prosper; local authorities, etc.

I also wonder how did the Anti-Money Laundering Council miss this? Surely, there must have been a trail of big transactions from this POGO business.

Scam central

Speaking of crimes, the explosive and riveting Al Jazeera documentary which was released recently should serve as a cautionary tale for the Philippines.

The documentary is about the curious case of jailed tycoon She Zhijiang and Shwe Kokko, a town in southeast Myanmar which has been taken over by the Chinese and has evolved into an organized crime and human trafficking hub.

Some people call it scam city because some buildings serve as headquarters of organized crimes involved in online scams.

In the report, She Zhijiang also mentioned Alice Guo, identifying her as a Chinese spy.

We don’t want to wake up one day to find out that parts of our country, if not the whole archipelago, has already been taken over by crime syndicates, just like Shwe Kokko.

Public service announcement

The Friends of PGH or the Philippine General Hospital is organizing a golf tournament on Oct. 23 at the Canlubang Golf Course in Laguna to raise funds for the development of a Healing Garden at PGH, which aims to provide a space for renewal for cancer patients, their families and health care workers.

Dr. Gap Legaspi, PGH executive director, said the funds would be used to build the Healing Garden in front of the Cancer Institute and harmonize with three other pocket gardens within the hospital grounds.

“It will be a sanctuary where patients, visitors, health care workers and students can reenergize, relax and find peace during difficult times.”

Those interested in supporting this project may get in touch with FPGH volunteer Renee Francisco at [email protected], 09178342539.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter  @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.