The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation has confirmed that a circulating memo requesting that local government units take down POGOs was fake.
Disguised as an official memo from Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the memo ordered local government units in Metro Manila to immediately terminate the operations of POGOs “within the first week of August”.
The memo read: “President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has ordered all local government units in Metro Manila to terminate all POGO and IGL operations as soon as possible. All local government operations are required to end these activities within the first week of August 2024.”
This message has been confirmed as fake with POGOs not to be terminated until the end of the year.
Atty. Jessa Mariz Fernandez, Head of PAGCOR’s Offshore Gaming Licensing Department, revealed that the doctored memo was taken from a real memo that she issued on July 23.
She said: “We have not issued a memorandum ordering LGUs to immediately close down POGO operations in their jurisdiction because the President’s order is very clear: We have until the end of the year to wind down POGO operations, and we will follow that.
“This is clear disinformation intended to create chaos and confusion. Whoever is behind this clearly has ulterior motives, and we shall ask the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate and unmask them to determine their motives.
“We reiterate, and we advise our LGUs, that licensed IGLs can continue operating until we have determined the process of winding down their operations, which we currently have not yet finalised.”
President Marcos Jr. recently intensified actions against POGOs in the country in his recent state of the nation address, moving to implement a full ban on gaming operators.
He said: “Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into elicit areas beyond gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture – even murder.
“The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop. It is necessary to stop this disturbance in our society, and the desecration of our country.”