Deconstructing the administration stand on POGOs

NO ONE seems to agree with President Duterte that Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) are good for the country. And yet no one dares question his judgment to his face. Media reporting these merely as contradictory statements do not provide the context that can make sense of the situation.

The charge of money laundering has been added to the list of crimes that have come in the POGOs’ wake, which include kidnapping, killings, bribery and prostitution. 

In a privilege speech on March 3, Sen. Richard Gordon revealed that from September 2019 to February 2020, a whopping $447 million (PHP22.68 billion) entered the country through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The senator linked the huge cash flow to the presence of Chinese POGO workers. Gordon, who heads the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, conducted an inquiry two days later, which looked as well into the possibility that some POGO workers are actually members of China’s People’s Liberation Army.

As these dubious links became public, some officials and groups called for the shutdown of POGOs. But President Rodrigo Duterte was quick to defend the gambling industry and rejected the possibility of their pullout from the country.

The administration has long trumpeted the supposed economic benefits of POGOs. But some government agencies don’t agree with this official position. Media reports did cite relevant officials who downplayed the economic benefits of the online gambling industry, but these did not gain traction. With the media’s failure to connect the dots, the president’s narrative persisted, while the reports glossed over the views contradicting Duterte’s determined defense of POGOs in the country.

CMFR monitored reports from the three major Manila broadsheets (Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine Star); four primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, CNN Philippines’ News Night, GMA-7’s 24 Oras and TV5’s Aksyon); as well as selected news websites from March 3 to March 10, 2020.

Conflicting claims reported as separate stories

Most news accounts reported the developments in Senator Gordon’s March 5 inquiry, focusing on the views of senators and resource persons who attended the hearing. In the succeeding days, some reports cited the views of Malacañang, which dismissed the calls for the online gambling hubs’ shutdown.

News.ABS-CBN.com seemed oblivious to the running contradiction between Duterte’s claims and the views held by other government officials regarding the gains provided by POGOs. In a March 9 report, the news site highlighted statements by Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo who cited the stream of revenue from the Chinese-run gambling hubs in justifying the president’s rejection of their shutdown. The following day, it also picked up Duterte’s reason for retaining POGOs, citing the PHP17 billion earnings from the industry.

News.ABS-CBN.com did not mention the earlier statements of some government officials, as noted by other news organizations, which contradicted Duterte’s defense of POGOs.

Among the most salient was the testimony of Anti-Money Laundering Council chief Mel Georgie Racela during the March 5 inquiry, when he said how little POGOs contribute to the economy. Racela said the net inflow from the industry is only PHP7 billion — a meagre 0.29 percent of the P18.6 trillion generated by the Philippine economy. Or as Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon emphasized, a mere “one third of one percent”.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno, who was not involved in the Senate hearing, also expressed doubts about POGOs’ economic impact. In a March 6 report by GMA News Online, the central bank chief expressed his disapproval of the online gambling’s continued operations, citing the “negative effect” of POGO presence in the country, which include prostitution and criminality. Diokno also added that the financial risks of a potential pullout would not have a huge impact on the property sector. “Hindi naman ganun kalaki ang impact nung POGO,” Diokno said.

It seems as though the president is isolated from the rest of the executive agencies charged with the supervision and assessment of the revenues from POGOs — a point the media failed to raise and discuss.

A glaring disconnect

Most reports on Duterte’s defense of the POGO did not refer to earlier reports of rising criminal activities either.

Reports on the Senate inquiry noted that Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, Deputy Director for Operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP), told senators that there has been a noticeable increase in criminal activities involving Chinese nationals. For instance, from 2017 to 2020, the PNP  recorded 73 casino-related kidnappings with a total of 80 victims who are all Chinese. “The increase in crime is well, directly dependent on the number of Chinese nationals that have arrived here,” Eleazar said. The police official also admitted to Senator Drilon that the PNP is baffled by the rise of POGO-related crimes, calling it a cause for concern. “We didn’t have these kinds of operations before,” he said.

On March 4, the media picked up the Chinese embassy’s statement downplaying the Chinese role in reported criminal activities as “based on fake news,” calling them “isolated” incidents.

President Duterte has favored the PNP on many issues and on several occasions has defended them against criticism. That the PNP’s findings seem to oppose the president’s assessment should have prompted journalists to examine further the different positions taken by the president and the police on the POGO issue.

Setting the agenda

In presenting these developments as separate, seemingly unrelated episodes, the media failed its gatekeeping responsibility. Editors have allowed separate news accounts to provide pieces of a puzzle, but without the larger context that could help the public interpret the lack of communication among key officials dealing with POGOs.

What do the statements mean? Who should the public believe — the president, who’s been showing preferential treatment for POGOs, or government officials who have the official data to back up their views about the presence of the online gambling hubs? Unfortunately, nobody seems to be picking up on these questions.

The media, with their agenda-setting power, must steer the discourse towards a more coherent account and point to the obvious lack of credibility of some sources in comparison to others. If nobody is talking about the contradictions among government officials themselves on the POGO issue, then the media must take the lead and read between the lines, underscoring what the public needs to know.

In a previous monitor, CMFR pointed out that the Senate’s attention on the POGO issue provides journalists with sufficient leads for them to undertake more in-depth investigation. (See “Immigration Story: Influx of Chinese and POGOs”).

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has continued to feed journalists with possible follow up reports. But the media seem unwilling to go beyond recording statements, unwilling to make sense of the contradiction, not daring to interpret what these statements reveal about a policy in disarray with no one willing to bite the bullet and fix it.