Manila 6th District Rep. Benny Abante on Wednesday stressed that reports of overstaying Philippines offshore gaming operator (POGO) workers and POGOs failing to remit the proper taxes to the government are “red flags” that the industry cannot be regulated and should be shut down.
“The irregularities that have been reported and revealed in legislative inquiries regarding POGOs show the impracticability of proposals to maintain the status quo and regulate them,” said Abante.
The lawmaker cited the challenges currently faced by the government in rounding up POGO workers illegally staying in the country, as well as those encountered in the collection of taxes owed by POGOs.
“It is moot to talk about the supposed potential benefits of the POGO industry when our experience clearly shows us that POGOs have difficulty complying with our immigration rules and tax regulations,” the solon added.
“If there are clear manifestations that these POGOs will not respect our laws and that it will take extraordinary efforts on our part to regulate the industry, then we should just ban them outright,” said Abante.
“Let us instead focus on the development of industries that will produce jobs and revenues, not headaches and legal issues.”
The lawmaker cited the challenges currently faced by the government in rounding up POGO workers illegally staying in the country, as well as those encountered in the collection of taxes owed by POGOs.
The Department of Justice recently announced the initial deportation of five to six POGO workers and reported that an additional 400 Chinese POGO workers are in the custody of the Bureau of Immigration and are being processed for deportation.
At the same time, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian revealed that reports from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) showed that the government may have lost as much as 1.9 billion pesos from POGOs due to their failure to settle correct taxes from period January to August this year.
