Philippines Plans to Gradually Cease Operations of Offshore Gaming Hubs

The Philippines and China have a complex relationship that involves substantial trade as well as joint efforts to combat crime.

On Monday, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued an order for the immediate suspension of the majority of Chinese-run online gambling businesses operating in the Philippines. The Chinese operators are alleged to have engaged in financial fraud, human trafficking, torture, kidnappings, and killings.

His decision to outlaw the Chinese-owned online casinos, which are thought to operate in over 400 locations throughout the Philippines and employ tens of thousands of people from China and Southeast Asia, coincided with a government crackdown that was supported by Beijing.

As a result, authorities have closed down a number of expansive complexes comprising numerous buildings. They believed that thousands of people, primarily from Southeast Asia, who are Chinese, Vietnamese, and other nationalities, were unlawfully recruited and forced to labour in appalling conditions.

During his state-of-the-nation speech, Marcos announced the decision and stated that the Philippines would push for the formation of security alliances with friendly nations in order to strengthen its defensive capability and counter threats to its territorial interests in the South China Sea. He also stated that the Philippines would only settle disputes through diplomacy.

The Philippines and China have a complex relationship that involves substantial trade as well as joint efforts to combat crime. However, there are also long-standing conflicts in the South China Sea between the neighbouring Asian nations, which have become more aggressive since last year.

Senators in the Philippines also ordered the arrest of a town mayor in the province of Tarlac, north of Manila, who has refused to show up for investigations into allegations made against her. These allegations include her alleged connections to a sizable online gambling complex close to her town hall and suspicion that she falsely claimed to be Chinese in order to be eligible to run for a position in government that is exclusively open to Filipinos.

Alice Guo, the mayor, has been placed on administrative leave and has had her bank accounts blocked, despite her denials of any wrongdoing. Senators from the Philippines claim that payoffs to local politicians and regulatory agency corruption are major reasons behind the rapid growth of the online gambling sector.

Marcos stated in his speech that “their operations, disguising themselves as legitimate entities, have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, and even murder.”

Lawmakers and senior House of Representatives officials erupted in celebration when Marcos gave the government’s gaming agency the order to shut down the activities of the so-called Philippine offshore gaming operators, or POGOs, by year’s end.

He requested that labour officials find other employment for Filipino workers who would be laid off as a result of the closure.

Marcos detailed steps to address a number of challenges, such as poverty and low wages, rising expenses of food and electricity, and setting out his vision for the upcoming year.

Marcos stated that his administration’s “bloodless war” on hazardous drugs never targeted [his predecessor’s] harsh anti-drug crackdown that resulted in the deaths of thousands of primarily innocent individuals.

Under former President Rodrigo Duterte, the International Criminal Court has been looking into massive drug-related killings as potential crimes against humanity. Duterte has refuted any approval of extrajudicial executions.

Marcos emphasised that the Philippines would not back down in the face of Beijing’s increasingly confrontational disputes and that it would only use peaceful methods to settle any disagreements.

“The West Philippine Sea is not only a figment of our imagination. Marcos declared, “It belongs to us,” referring to the area of the South China Sea that Manila claims. Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation and thunderous applause for his words.

He said that the Philippines was still working “to strengthen our defense posture, both through partnerships with like-minded states and through developing self-reliance.”

The United States, the Philippines’ longstanding treaty partner, is concerned that the increasingly aggressive encounters at Second Thomas Shoal and nearby waters could turn into a wider battle.

According to the Philippine government, the worst confrontation occurred on June 17, when Chinese forces on motorboats repeatedly rammed and then boarded two Philippine navy boats to stop Filipino personnel from bringing food and other supplies, including guns, to the ship outpost in the shallows of the shoal.

Using homemade spears and machetes, the Chinese took control of the Philippine navy boats and caused damage to them. In a chaotic conflict, multiple Filipino navy members were injured in a violent confrontation. Washington has issued a repeated warning that should Philippine forces be attacked in the South China Sea or other outlying waters, it must defend the Philippines in accordance with the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.