HOUSE Quad Comm lead chairman Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte on Monday asked concerned agencies to go after and arrest up to 10,000 illegal POGO workers still in the country.
Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, made the appeal after Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission informed the mega panel that there are between 9,000 to 10,000 Chinese nationals who are former workers of padlocked POGO hubs who have not left the country.
“To quote Usec Cruz, these foreigners are now ‘pakalat-kalat.’ You, the concerned agencies should be proactive, wag tutulog-tulog. This matter involves national security because these foreigners may now either be criminals or spies. For all you know, one of them is your neighbor,” Barbers said.
He said as early as before the end of 2024, after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. banned POGOs, Quad Comm had already requested relevant agencies to establish a “central database” of POGO workers.
He lamented that up to now, no such listing mechanism has been set up.
“If we do not know how many POGO workers have entered the country and where are they located, how can we monitor their activities?” Barbers asked.
Paolo Magtoto of the Central Luzon office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) informed the Quad Comm that they had issued alien employment permits to 15,140 workers of 16 POGO establishments in the region.
He said they have already canceled such permits in compliance with the President’s order banning POGOs.
“We have accordingly informed the Bureau of Immigration (BI) of such cancellations,” he said.
Responding to questions from Barbers, Magtoto said DOLE does not know the whereabouts of thousands of POGO workers.
BI representative Vicente Uncad told Quad Comm that upon receipt of the DOLE cancellation of employment permits, BI revoked the Chinese nationals’ working visas and downgraded them to tourist visas.
When Barbers said the foreigners’ tourist visas were good for only six months and should have by now expired, Uncad said the foreigners had the option to apply for an extension every month for a maximum period of two years.
When the Quad Comm lead chairman asked if the Chinese workers have applied for extensions, Uncad said he would have to check with the appropriate BI office.
“‘Yun ang sinasabi ni Usec Cruz, pakalat-kalat na ang mga ‘yan,” the Mindanao lawmaker quipped.
In the course of the Quad Comm hearing, Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, the panel’s overall vice chairman, made a similar manifestation on the lack of a database of foreign POGO workers.
Acop said there is no single listing of tourist visas and other entry permits issued to foreigners, including POGO personnel.
“That is because several agencies are authorized by law to issue visas, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, the special economic zones, PRA (Philippine Retirement Authority), and even DTI (Department of Trade and Industry),” Acop said.
No agency representative in the Quad Comm hearing could inform the panel the total number of visas and entry permits issued to foreigners
