POGOs

AN up-the-ladder level politician who is a harsh critic of the national administration is intriguingly silent in regards to the current issue of corruption in the implementation of infrastructure projects, especially those for flood control.

In the current controversial issue several congressmen are literally dragged into the vortex because they are believed to be the true owners of construction companies. Only, their ownership is hidden through deception with other people’s name listed as owners. 

Also, the congressmen are the ones proposing the project, with most of these provided bloated budgets, and are only given the go-signal to implement if the implementation is given to their favored contractors. More so if the contractors concerned are close relatives, their dummies, or big contributors to their campaign kitty.

But this politician, despite being a known critic of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., seems evasive in manifesting a take on the corruption-laden anti-flood control projects. What could possibly be the reason for keeping such a demeanor?

From where we are perched, we can see some smoke emitting somewhere, providing us with what could be the answer to our query.

Yes, we believe that the politician is simply showing the shrewdness that will help in ensuring the insulation of the said politician’s family business, which is construction, and its having cornered most of the infrastructure projects in the area where the politician comes from.

Indeed this politician appears to have mastered the art of politics. That is, some brakes must be applied when getting involved in certain issues could possibly jeopardize one’s interests. In the case of this politician, joining in the fray may unnecessarily put the family construction business on the line.

So this politician wisely prefers to be silent and stay away from any possible risk to the family enterprise.

After all, it is common knowledge that the politician’s family’s construction firm had been devouring contracts from both the national and local governments, more abundantly years back.

But there is one thing good about this politician’s family-owned construction firm. What we heard from sources known familiar with the ways of the politician’s family, it is giving out to the congressman or local official project sponsors a total of 30 percent of the won bid price.

Of the 30 percent, 15 percent goes to the congressman or the top local government project sponsor, and the remaining 15% is apportioned accordingly, depending on one official’s role in the facilitation of processing the papers needed for easy collection of payments.

Indeed, this politician’s decision to keep himself silent in the hotly discussed issue of unfinished, substandard, and even ghost anti-flood control projects is one move that the politician could have learned from the “master” that the politician had been serving with dog-like loyalty.

Surely, that is one wise move that others need to emulate if they are intending to remain in the public service for long while keeping a distance from being discovered for certain weaknesses.

*********************************

So, it is not true that there are illegal Philippine offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) hubs in Davao City? This is what Davao City Acting Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte would want Davaoeños – and possibly all the Filipinos – to believe.

Of course, we can understand the acting mayor. After all, the issue of POGOs cannot escape being connected to the administration of his father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was President when POGOs were dominating the landscape of gambling operations in the country, with aficionados doing their wagering from other countries, specifically China. The Chinese, though, are known to have initiated the POGOs in the country with approval by the Philippine government done through the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR).

When some of the POGOs diversifying their operation into scamming, cybersex, and other criminal activities, the effects on the Philippine society started getting intolerable. And that was when the clamor to ban the POGOs in the country started rolling.

Despite the ban made official during the President’s 3^rd State of the Nation Address, and compliance by the concerned establishments set by the end of December 2024, some splinters of POGOs started relocating and operating clandestinely.

There were those apprehended in Cebu; then in Panabo, Davao del Norte; and lately in a residential building inside a posh subdivision in Buhangin, Davao City.

Acting Mayor Baste, though, appears unconvinced that it was a POGO thing that was busted in the city. Rather, he believes, that it could be another scheme, but the buster law agents prefer to call the operation of the arrested individuals, which includes Chinese nationals as another relocated illegally operating POGO.

And it is all because of the obsession of certain political groups identified with the national administration as one convenient way of discrediting his former President father, Baste suspects.

But of course, the raiding lawmen from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are fixated on their claim that all attributes set up and confiscated from the house that was raided, with information provided by residents, point to the operation as that of a POGO hub.

So, who is going to settle the issue on whether or not there was or is a POGO hub relocating in Davao City?