A rescue operation on August 31 was all it took for state operatives to unmask a hotel compound as an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub — but before that could happen, two Indonesians needed to escape.
On July 24, Mandaue City police rescued the two at Mango Green Village, along A.S. Fortuna Street. On the same day, the Mandaue City Prosecutor’s Office requested the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to take custody of the two Indonesians who filed slight illegal detention complaints against a Chinese national and his Filipina wife.
“[The City Prosecutor’s Office] hinted at the possibility that these Indonesian nationals are possible victims of trafficking so, guided by that statement, we conducted further investigation…we were able to establish that they were victims of trafficking,” Arnel Pura, agent-in-charge of the NBI Cebu District Office, told reporters on September 3.
On July 31, NBI National Director Jaime Santiago received a letter from the Indonesian embassy, urging the bureau to probe into reports of at least 40 Indonesians being forced to work as scammers.
NBI agents, in a joint judicial affidavit of arrest dated September 3, revealed that the two Indonesians came from a POGO hub in Pampanga which was raided on June 4. The Indonesians eventually transferred to Cebu on June 8, together with 12 Chinese bosses who continued their operations at the LMSK Building, in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.
“[The Indonesians] are trafficked persons for they have been recruited from Indonesia to work as Customer Care Representatives (CCR) here in the Philippines. Unfortunately, they ended up in a POGO hub named Xin Tian Di Gou Ji Group in Clark, Angeles City in Pampanga,” NBI personnel Agapito Gierran and Bienvenido Panican said in the affidavit.
The NBI agents added that the Indonesians were being deprived of liberty, kept under guarded security and had their travel documents kept by their employer.
“On June 24, the illegal operation again transferred to another location, particularly in a four-storey building located at No. 23, Mango Green [Village] Subdivision, A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City,” the affidavit read.
Escape from the tri-cities
Based on a separate affidavit from one of the Cebu POGO hub administrators dated September 2, a certain Alona Capil Bautista, their scamming operations originated from Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga.
Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) spokesperson Winston Casio also confirmed that the operations were from Lucky South 99 on a TeleRadyo Serbisyo radio program on September 4.
Bautista, who was a resident of Tarlac City, started as an administrator of Lucky South 99 on April 23, 2024. The administrator was tasked with buying provisions and other needs of the foreigners who belonged to her “team.”
According to Bautista, she bought the personal needs of the hired foreigners because they were not allowed to leave the premises of Lucky South 99 due to a restriction imposed by their head administrator, Thwe Thwe San.
While in Porac, the administrator learned that the name of the manager of the company was a certain Jojo, with the Chinese name “Xiao Long,” according to what she heard. Bautista claimed that Xiao Long had other partners named Barbatos, DZ, Ba Hao, and Feayang.
On September 3, NBI operatives identified Xiao Long as the Chinese Zhao Long — one of the heads of the Cebu POGO hub.
Bautista said that they moved to Cebu in June after their previous workplace was raided on June 3.
“Just before the raid of my previous workplace in Porac, our employer received a tip of the impending raid and so we were hurriedly brought to a hotel where we stayed for five days,” the administrator’s affidavit read.
According to Bautista, her team leader, Jordan, promised to pay her a salary if she agreed to come with other members of her team to Cebu. At least 20 of them took a Philippine Airlines flight together on the evening of either June 8 or 9 from Pampanga to Cebu.
Jordan is the nickname of Chinese Ron Mou Ke, who was included in the list of 16 foreigners being sued for qualified trafficking, according to the NBI. Also included in the list is Thwe Thwe San and Zhao Long.
“Upon arrival in Cebu, we were brought to the LMSK Building in Mabolo, Cebu City where the other workers (members of another team) were also brought. At first, there were about 200 workers brought to Cebu from Porac. We stayed there for about three weeks,” Bautista said.
After five days, the team worked on the fifth floor of the LMSK building from 11 am to 11 pm daily, using phones that were given to them back in Porac. Three weeks later, Bautista narrated, the company’s operations transferred to Mango Green Village in Mandaue City.
After another two weeks, the workers transferred to another residential building near Pacha De Mactan in Barangay Soong, Lapu-Lapu City.
“When the bosses learned about the raid in Mango Green Village on [July 22], the non-Filipino workers were transferred to another place near Robinsons Galleria in Cebu City. We [Filipino workers] were left in Pacha De Mactan,” Bautista said.
The administrator confirmed that the foreign workers were transferred to the Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, on August 2.
On August 29, NBI operatives conducted a surveillance operation inside the hotel and confirmed the identities of several Indonesian and Chinese citizens.
On August 31, armed with a mission order, agents from the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Bureau of Immigration (BI), and NBI conducted a rescue operation at both House No. 808 and the Tourist Garden Hotel.
While they found no illegal activity at the residential building in Barangay Soong, Lapu-Lapu City, operatives discovered 169 foreigners conducting love scams and cryptocurrency scams at the Tourist Garden Hotel. – Rappler.com
