by Bilyonaryo, Aug 9, 2019
Pagcor misses the point in segregating Chinese workers in POGO hubs
Senator Win Gatchalian thinks Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Chair Andrea Domingodoes not have a handle on the real issues bedevelling the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and its droves of illegal Chinese workers.
“Pagcor’s plan to transfer POGOs to ‘self-contained’ communities or hubs may be well-intentioned but it is totally missing the point,” said Gatchalian in a statement.
“Imbes na ayusin ang problema ay tinatago lang nila ito,” he added.
Pagcor plans to shut down all POGO offices in Metro Manila and relocate their hundreds of thousands of Chinese staff members to POGO hubs – a 20-hectare facility in the former Island Cove Resort in Kawit, Cavite and a five-hectare complex in Clark, Pampanga – by 2021.
Domingo said the plan would benefit Chinese workers because she claimed it was safer to work inside these hubs than co-mingle with Filipinos in Metro Manila’s streets.
Gatchalian feels Domingo should review her plans by first identifying POGO’s problems such as hiring Chinese workers with only tourist visas, making them pay more taxes, and address the money laundering, “modern day slavery” and other criminal issues hounding these operations considered by China as patently illegal.
“What we want is for POGO operators and their employees to pay the correct taxes and not devour local jobs that are exclusively for our countrymen,” said Gatchalian.
“The government may be losing an estimated P32 billion in uncollected income taxes a year from some 138,000 foreign workers in POGOs, according to the Department of Finance. Isolating these firms and workers into hubs will not bring additional revenue for the government, nor will it solve the issue of foreigners encroaching on jobs meant for Filipino citizens,” he added.
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