On September 9, during a hearing on illegal POGO activities hosted by the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, he also expressed this stance.
Clearly, Bong Go supports the Marcos administration's move to ban POGO, but the senator had previously expressed support for POGO and was allegedly linked to POGO funds during former President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody drug war.
On July 22, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced a total ban on POGO in his third State of the Nation Address and directed PAGCOR to cease POGO operations by the end of 2024.
Two days after Marcos announced this decision, Bong Go issued a press release expressing support for the POGO ban. The senator acknowledged that the POGO industry brought significant revenue and employment to the Philippines, but he stated that the safety of Filipinos must come first. He also mentioned that the government should not be selective in the POGO ban.
At a major panel hearing of the House of Representatives on August 28, Police Colonel Jovie Espenido claimed that Go was the channel through which police received a 20,000 peso cash reward for each person killed in Duterte's drug war. It is alleged that this money came from POGO and town lotteries.
Go condemned Espenido's testimony as malicious and defamatory, claiming he never managed any funds related to the drug war and POGO.
PS: Opportunist?
