The Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGO) is questioning a raid conducted by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on one of its members last week.
Members of NBI’s cybercrime division reportedly stormed the office of Greatfeat Service in Lepanto Building in Makati City last March 21, using a search and seizure order that was addressed to another operator—Arriba Universal—which holds office on the same floor as Greatfeat, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
A case of mistaken identity
Arriba is a service provider outsourced by state regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) as one of its licensees, according to a source familiar with the matter. The search warrant for Arriba was issued by a Quezon City regional trial court, and the NBI was only given 48 hours to implement it.
But when the NBI agents went to Arriba’s office in Makati, a company lawyer told them “This is not Arriba Universal, this is Greatfeat.”
The POGO group has accused the NBI of harassing and rounding up Greatfeat’s employees. The agents were also claimed to have separated Filipino and Chinese staff members and confiscated phones and computers.
Martini Cruz, chief of the NBI cybercrime division, said the team “did not harass them and no one was arrested,” although one “rowdy” employee was handcuffed by the agents.
The NBI team has already met with PAGCOR and POGO licensees to explain—and possibly apologize—the raid, a source told CalvinAyre.com.
PAGCOR currently has 35 licensees under its POGO program, which was designed in direct response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s original anti-online statements last year. Last week’s raid, though a gaffe, was enough to cause apprehension among the POGO members, many of whom have been subjected to nuisance raids in the past.
Before the advent of POGO, some Asian-facing online gambling companies who base their business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in the Philippines had been subjected to police raids, the grounds for which are slim to non-existent.
