TELL the truth and tell all you know about illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) for the sake of the country.
This is the appeal of Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. he made Sunday to former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo and Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, whom lawmakers suspect to be behind illegal POGO hubs in Bamban and in Porac, Pampanga.
“Alice Guo and Cassandra Ong are claiming they are Filipinos. If this is true, they owe it to our country to speak up and reveal all they know about these underground POGOs that flourished during the past administration,” Gonzales said.
“Tayong mga Filipino, mahal natin ang ating bansa. Kung mga Filipino sila, dapat mahal din nila ang ating bayan,” he said.
Guo, who is facing numerous charges in connection with POGO activities in her town, was arrested by authorities in Indonesia, where she tried to hide, and repatriated to Manila on Friday.
She is expected to face the Senate next week to answer questions on the POGO hub in Bamban that the authorities have closed down.
Ong, on the other hand, is under detention in the House of Representatives. She testified last Wednesday before the four-committee panel looking into illegal POGOs, dangerous drugs and extrajudicial killings (EJKs) committed during the previous administration’s brutal war on drugs.
Her blood pressure level became unstable in the middle of her testimony, prompting the House medical staff to take her to the hospital.
Gonzales said Ong “must be under a lot of pressure from those behind illegal POGOs.”
“A person who is telling the truth is usually relieved of pressure, stress and anxiety. The truth sets him or her free. This was not obviously the case with Miss Ong. She must be keeping a lot of things from us,” he said.
“Bakit magiging unstable ang blood pressure mo kung ikaw ay nagsasabi ng totoo?” he asked.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Ong claimed to hold a 58-percent stake in the corporation that owns the sprawling Porac property where 46 buildings, a mansion and other structures were built for a POGO operator, identified as Lucky South 99.
She however denied being involved in POGO operations despite admitting to being a representative of the operator. In fact, she dealt with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) as Lucky South 99 representative.
According to PAGCOR, it licensed only one building in the Porac hub as a POGO. PAGCOR has not renewed the license.
Gonzales lamented that the reputation of Pampanga has been tainted by the Porac POGO, the September 2023 seizure of P3.6-billion worth of shabu in a warehouse in Mexico town, his hometown, and the discovery of P1.3 billion worth of illegal drugs in an abandoned car in Mabalacat City in August of that year.
“Kawawa ang probinsiya namin, a progressive growth area in Central Luzon. We should be able to recover from this mess but we should know what really happened with the cooperation of vital witnesses like Miss Ong,” he said.
Gonzales prodded Ong to speak up in last Wednesday’s hearing, but the witness was very careful in her answers and was mostly tightlipped.
Gonzales was the principal proponent of the joint four-committee inquiry into POGOs, illegal drugs and EJKs. He also authored the resolution that prompted the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers to investigate the P3.6-billion shabu shipment seized in Mexico town.
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