The third and seventh floors of a building in the Bay Area of Parañaque City, Metro Manila, were raided by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), military, Bureau of Immigration, DOJ Office of Cybercrime, and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission due to reports of illegal offshore gambling operations in the area.
The so-called Bay Area is actually a reclaimed area between Parañaque City and Pasay City, near the Manila Bay side.
This area is also the most concentrated area for both physical and online gambling industries in the Philippines. For this reason, it is also one of the areas with the highest concentration of gambling operators and Chinese expatriates in the Philippines.
Moreover, it is one of the areas with the highest crime rates in the Philippines. Demolishing this den of vice would be more beneficial than harmful, both for the Philippines and for China.
Rumor has it that, up to now, the authorities have detained and arrested over 300 offshore gambling operators, many of whom are Chinese.
A news video of the raid shows that this group was likely involved in the "Pig Butchering" online scam. The computer desktops clearly showed social media software being used for scamming, evidently in the process of "pig butchering." The faces of the operators, predominantly Chinese, were clearly visible.
In this operation, the Philippine authorities once again deployed the military, clearly because they believed they had caught some big fish and did not want any to slip through the net.
Those with good memory will remember that on March 13, 2024, the authorities deployed the military and armored vehicles to surround the Baofu Compound in Bamban, Tarlac, marking the beginning of a major crackdown on offshore gambling. Alice Leal Guo, the then mayor of Bamban, became the most famous female prisoner in the Philippines as a result.
Looking at the series of events since March 13 last year, just the fact that the military and armored vehicles were deployed during the raid on the Baofu Compound proves that the Philippine officials responsible for initiating the raid were very wise, with exceptionally accurate judgment and keen instincts.
The editor is very curious about which big fish was caught this time? Will this big fish reach the same level of notoriety and discussion as Alice Leal Guo? Will this person face the same fate as Alice Leal Guo?
