PRESS STATEMENT ON BAMBAN MAYOR ALICE GUO’S ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT IN ILLEGAL OFFSHORE GAMING OPERATIONS

We take issue with the statements of Atty. Nicole Rose Margaret Jamilla who tried to pass the blame to PAGCOR the reasons for the criminal cases filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government against her client, Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac.

PAGCOR’s regulations are clear cut. If our licensees are found violating the terms of their licenses, whether these are provisional licenses or regular licenses, they are severely fined and penalized and, in the most serious cases, the licenses are revoked.

PAGCOR has nothing to do with the issuance of local business permits and licenses. We are also not responsible for the inspection of buildings that are not under our jurisdiction. We issue licenses based on our own guidelines and the documents submitted by applicants.

In the case of the raided compound in Bamban last March 13, 2024, one of the entities doing business in the compound was Zun Yuan Technologies, Inc. which was the holder of a provisional license from PAGCOR issued only last October 19, 2023.

Zun Yuan’s registered address was the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of A1 Building inside the compound of Baofu Land Development Inc. We had people from the Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Department assigned there to monitor their operations.

Outside of those premises, PAGCOR had no access to the rest of the 8-hectare compound and the 39 other buildings there, many of which were highly restricted and inaccessible to the public. Hence, our people could not have legally monitored activities there.

Aside from monitoring and enforcement of PAGCOR rules, the only role of PAGCOR in the raided illegal facilities in Bamban was the issuance of a provisional license to Zun Yuan Technologies, which had been revoked immediately after the March 13 raid.

For the record, it is only under the present PAGCOR administration that the real anomalies in the former Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGO activities have been exposed.

It is only under the present leadership that at least ten (10) raids against POGOs have been successfully conducted, leading to discovery and exposure of criminal activities being perpetrated by some of the licensees.