Senator Win Gatchalian wants the Bureau of Immigration to proactively confiscate the alien certificate of registration cards (ACR-I) issued to all foreigners involved in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) engaged in criminal activities.
“I strongly suggest that the physical cards should be confiscated because, in our country, physical cards matter. Once you show the physical card, there’s an immediate assumption of legitimacy, but we are dealing with criminals, including human trafficking syndicates that were apprehended, and yet they are carrying valid IDs. It’s better to confiscate these IDs so they won’t be able to use the IDs,” Gatchalian said.
Because government agencies are not interconnected, there’s no way for agencies to check the validity of the information through the other government agencies. This absence of connectivity enables holders of government-issued IDs to lend credibility to the information specified in those IDs, Gatchalian explained at a hearing conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee regarding the unauthorized proliferation and use of government documents by foreign nationals.
According to Gatchalian, POGO workers, particularly those engaged in illegal activities, have been recycling the use of such ACRs to justify their continued stay in the country and give them a semblance of validity.
He cited the case of ACRs recovered during a police raid conducted in October last year at Smart Web Technology, a POGO establishment in Pasay City. The senator took note that the registered employers on the ACRs were Brickhartz Technology Inc., a POGO service provider implicated in a kidnapping and human trafficking case, and SA Rivendell Global Support, Inc., another POGO-accredited service provider raided by the police in August 2023 for its involvement in illegal activities.
“This is alarming because this indicates that government-issued IDs are being recycled to perpetrate illegal activities,” Gatchalian said.
“Paano nangyari ito? After the raid, the IDs should have been revoked to ensure that these foreigners would not be able to use these IDs as a form of identification to legitimize their stay in the country where they continue to perpetrate illegal activities. These IDs involve just a few individuals who were raided during that time, but we don’t know how many of them still carry these IDs, roam around the country, and present them as valid IDs,” he emphasized.
The chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, Gatchalian has been strongly advocating for the expulsion of POGOs from the country saying the social costs of allowing them to continue operations in the country far outweigh any economic benefit derived from the industry.
