MANILA – Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Monday said a fugitive recovery operation is one of the options that the government may take against foreign workers of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) who failed to downgrade their visas last October 15.
“It can happen (fugitive recovery operations) because the numbers are not satisfactory as of now. And there are many people who have not voluntarily downgraded their visas. This presents a dilemma to us because it shows that many of them really don’t want to leave the country,” Remulla said in an interview.
For those who did not apply for new visas to replace their POGO work visas, Remulla said they will be considered to have automatically downgraded, with few exceptions to allow some for limited work to undertake winding down operations.
“Well, we’re automatically downgrading them already. And which means that they’re not anymore allowed to conduct activities except for winding down. Because winding down is very important since the business entails taking money from people into a wallet, an e-wallet that contains their betting capital. It has to be returned to the owners. And that’s about the most important part of the winding down because we don’t want to be the ones blamed if the people lose their money, having had no opportunity for the money to be returned because the outfits were closed. At least on the legal POGOs,” he said.
Remulla said the exodus of POGO workers is a delicate issue but that it remains manageable.
“We can cope with it. I don’t think that it’s a problem coping with it. It can result in a humanitarian crisis if we do not handle it properly. But I think we’ve already considered all the possibilities when we started this matter of winding down the activities of the POGOs and closing them by December 31,” he said. (PNA)