The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) stated that a recent government raid in Bagac suspected a "underground bank" operating within a suspected offshore gambling (POGO) park.
PAOCC spokesperson Gasao mentioned in an interview that the operations of "Bagac Central First Company" located in Centro Park, Bagac town seemed unusual.
He said, "This is unusual. Frankly, there are signs of an underground bank there. So, I hope what we found, based on what we saw there, indicates the presence of an underground bank. This is not a regular company."
Gasao noted several danger signs during the raid on this company, suggesting that it might actually be an offshore gambling company, despite using the name of a business process outsourcing company as a cover.
These suspicious signs included rows of numerous mobile phones, allegedly used to receive payment system information.
He emphasized, "We also saw them using a gambling platform called Winbox. This Winbox gambling platform is banned in other countries because it is allegedly used in so-called cryptocurrency investment scams."
PAOCC officials stated that although the raid led to the arrest of the company's big boss, there are still five others (four Malaysians and one Thai) to be found.
Gasao added, "There are five more people in the arrest warrant that we didn't catch. So what we did was, we applied to the immigration bureau yesterday, hoping to issue a wanted alert for these leaders who are still at large."
President Marcos, in his third State of the Nation Address in July, ordered the abolition of the offshore gambling industry nationwide, which led to a series of raids on suspected offshore gambling dens and offices.
Marcos has directed the elimination and prohibition of all offshore gambling operations by the end of 2024.
