RAID. A mahjjong table with tiles strewn mid-game at the officers' room at a building in Pasay City that was raided over the weekend by authorities. The raid was led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Department of Justice. (PNA photo by Ben Pulta)
MANILA – A Philippine Overseas Gaming Operation (POGO) firm operating in Pasay City has been raided by an anti-human trafficking task force over the weekend.
The task force, led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Department of Justice, discovered a self-contained operation in the six-story building along Williams Street in Pasay City.
The building came complete with a nine-room KTV area, a pharmacy with a physician and two patient beds, a restaurant, and a hotpot "shabu-shabu" area.
Nine money vaults were also discovered around the premises.
"Given the abundance of evidence pointing to sex trafficking on said site, an onsite inquest hearing (will be done) for the filing of criminal charges," the PAOCC said in a statement on Saturday.
During the raid, two male Chinese workers, Shui Niu, 27, and Lu Hao Yu, 22, approached government agents and said they were being kept against their will and showed torture marks on their bodies.
Shiu Niu claimed to have been kidnapped and was sold five months ago for PHP500,000 from another POGO operation, while Lu Hao Yu said he was being held for more than a year and made to work 15-hour days.
About 731 workers, including seven Filipinas, were also rescued from an aquarium-style viewing chamber of a massage parlor on the building's second floor.
"PAOCC will recommend that Smart Web Technology Corp.'s temporary license as an Internet Gaming License (IGL) operator be revoked for allowing human trafficking to take place at their facility. As a result, the building, as well as other assets owned by the aforementioned IGL, will be referred for freezing and maybe confiscated as illegal gains," the PAOCC said.
The operation was undertaken after a search warrant was issued by Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 35 Judge Maricris Pahate-Felix against a certain "Caic" and a certain "Tein."
Smart Web was one of two POGOs whose licenses were earlier revoked by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) and later discovered to be operating under a new business name and the new PAGCOR IGL.
The PAOCC said PAGCOR personnel had earlier failed to examine the area after the compound's guards refused the inspection team. (PNA)
