Recently, members of AG Company arrested by RCBC have been detained in Yangguang Prison, the so-called "Sunshine Prison". Do you really understand it? Today, PASA will take everyone to see this temporary detention center transformed from an office building, which has now become the "new home" for countless caught spinach practitioners. Let's get a taste of the prison food there and see how "sunny" it really is!
Sunshine Building: From Office to "Prison" Dramatic Turn
From bustling office building to notorious stronghold
"Sunshine Building" was originally an ordinary commercial office building located in Pasay City, Metro Manila. The name sounds full of positive energy, as if bathed in sunshine. However, the true face of this building is far from it. It was once one of the strongholds of the well-known spinach companies SK Group and DeXin Group, accommodating more than 2000 employees at its peak. These people worked day and night for online casinos and scam platforms, ostensibly as tech company employees, but actually deeply involved in illegal activities.
It is rumored that the internal management of Sunshine Building was extremely cruel, aptly described as "darkness without daylight". There are horrifying claims circulating within the circle: at least three Chinese employees are beaten to death each month. This place was no longer a normal workplace, but more like an unlisted private torture prison, notorious far and wide.
Raid Operation: The turning point from building to prison
The turning point occurred during a massive raid in October 2023. The Philippine law enforcement struck with thunder, raided the Smart Web Technology company stronghold in Sunshine Building, and arrested more than 780 people on the spot, including a large group of overseas online betting "pushers", so-called "PR" ladies, and other staff. The scene was extremely chaotic, with too many people caught to even run away.
Due to the unexpectedly high number of arrests, the police could not find enough detention places at the moment, so they simply used local resources and transformed six floors of Sunshine Building into a temporary prison. The corridor iron doors were welded shut, and armed security guarded 24 hours a day, from then on the nickname "Sunshine Prison" spread. According to Philippine media reports, about 500 people were detained at that time, most of them Chinese citizens. This dramatic transformation of the building from a bustling office to an iron-barred cage marked the arrival of the Philippine official era of "zero tolerance" towards illegal spinach dens.
On-site Sketch: After the transformation, the Sunshine Building, with corridors sealed by iron bars and doors welded tightly, security patrolling all weather. The former office building now exudes a strong prison atmosphere, even the red lanterns hung for the Chinese New Year are lonely behind the iron windows, adding an ironic touch.
Raid Storm: The Doomsday of Pushers
Sunshine Building is just the beginning
The collapse of Sunshine Building was just the beginning of the Philippine authorities' crackdown on illegal POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators). Subsequently, a series of raid operations swept across the country, turning the entire spinach circle upside down. These dens often masquerade as BPO outsourcing or tech companies, but are actually engaged in illegal gambling and telecommunications fraud, accompanied by human trafficking, illegal detention, and other crimes, long becoming a hotbed of transnational crime.
Clark Bamban Park: 408 people caught
In March 2024, Philippine law enforcement raided the Zunyuan Technology Park in the Clark Economic Zone, Bamban, which was then the largest spinach den in the country. The scene was like a "pig catching" convention, and by 5:30 AM, a total of 408 people were arrested. This included 234 local Filipino employees, as well as 107 Chinese, 58 Vietnamese, 6 Malaysians, 2 Rwandans, and 1 Taiwanese, truly an "international hotchpotch". Law enforcement found ample evidence confirming not only gambling involvement but also serious human trafficking and illegal detention, with many foreign employees' passports confiscated, forced into scam activities. The pushers, inadvertently, turned from "workers" to victims and accomplices.
Manila "No. 3 Park": The farce of escaping
On June 4, another den codenamed "No. 3 Park" in Manila was also raided. This time the pushers got smart, scattering and fleeing at the start of the action, staging a real-life "Escape from Alcatraz". Some ran desperately without choosing paths, even a "broken leg brother" with crutches was desperately hopping—after all, a broken leg can be treated, but a lost life is truly gone. However, while people can run, the den cannot, and the Philippine police's intense sweep is everywhere.
High-end office buildings fall: Lessons from PBCom and RCBC
The high-end commercial districts were not spared either. In early March, the police raided the PBCom building in Makati, although the target POGO company had evacuated in advance, resulting in a miss, but the authorities still shut down all operating equipment, tarnishing the building's reputation. Afterward, almost no spinach gang dared to enter again. Two weeks later, the police made a "return shot" directly to the RCBC Plaza in the Makati financial district, where the illegal POGO den on the 21st floor was wiped out, and 131 "high-end pushers" were caught on the spot. These once glamorous white-collar buildings have now become hideouts for illegal gambling, turning paradise into hell overnight.
Trend Prediction: From Pasay to Makati, from Clark to Manila Bay, the Philippine police are closing in step by step. Industry insiders predict that the next targets might be the new park in Quezon City, the hidden dens in Cebu, or even the entertainment city in Manila Bay. No matter where you hide, the police will find you.
Days in Sunshine Prison: A True Depiction of Hell on Earth
An overcrowded "concentration camp"
As spinach dens across the region were continuously smashed, a large number of pushers were sent to Sunshine Prison. Initially, it was the hundreds of detainees from Sunshine Building itself, followed by "new criminals" from Bamban Park and other dens. By June 2024, it is estimated that 650-750 people were detained in Sunshine Prison, with floors so crowded that water could not seep through. In August, there were even leaks claiming the prison was "bursting at the seams", and if not promptly deported, it would not hold up. The Philippine Department of Justice urgently cooperated with the Filipino-Chinese Business Association, planning to arrange chartered flights for the repatriation of 500 Chinese citizens, showing the situation of "too many pushers to detain".
Living conditions: Not a prison, but worse than a prison
What is it like to be detained in Sunshine Prison? In one word: hell on earth. First, the living conditions are extremely poor, although there is air conditioning, the food is so bad that it causes malnutrition, with many people inexplicably having nosebleeds. Want to smoke a cigarette to relieve boredom? You have to bribe the guards. Don't even think about having a mobile phone, the guards will directly confiscate it and force you to hand over the password. Guards here are "local emperors", if they are in a bad mood, they beat people at will, completely a law of the jungle. Some joke: "This place, except for not being officially organized, is even worse than a real prison."
No hope of escape, physical and mental collapse
Some tried to escape, such as in September 2023 when a Chinese prisoner took advantage of the guard's inattention and slipped out of the prison area, only to be caught by the outer security as soon as he ran, clearly a desperate act of preferring death to repatriation. Under long-term detention, many people's bodies broke down, some developed kidney failure, some were diagnosed with HIV, yet medical conditions were extremely limited. The days were unbearable, only counting the time outside the iron windows every day.
Repatriation: Returning home means entering prison
For most pushers, repatriation is the only way out. From December 2023, the Philippines began repatriating in batches, with the first batch of 180 people sent back to Shanghai, who were taken away by Chinese law enforcement authorities as soon as they landed, wearing the "landing three-piece set" of handcuffs and leg irons, directly entering the detention center. In August 2024, another 27 people were repatriated, with procedures for over 500 people already arranged, soon to return to their country. But returning home does not mean returning to their families, but entering domestic prisons to continue serving sentences, many regretting their past actions only at this stage.
Direct Shot: The suspects being repatriated are handcuffed, escorted onto buses to the airport. Travel documents issued by the Chinese embassy became their "return home pass", the simple meal on the plane was the last taste of "freedom", and legal sanctions awaited upon landing.
Last Advice: Sunshine Prison is waiting for you
The Philippine government's attitude towards POGO has completely changed. From once being a "revenue generator" to now a "street rat", President Marcos Jr. announced in July 2024 a complete ban on offshore gambling, with all POGOs required to shut down by the end of the year, achieving "POGO Free" by 2025. Law enforcement agencies are working together, from Sunshine Building to RCBC Plaza, the raid operations are becoming more precise, and pushers have nowhere to escape.
For those of you still mixing in the spinach circle, look at the fate of those predecessors in Sunshine Prison: cramped iron windows, poor treatment, and a prison life after repatriation, this is the destination for gambling and fraud involvement. If you don't stop now, what awaits you is not wealth, but the police breaking in, sending you to Sunshine Prison to join your old iron friends. What goes around comes around, don't say no one warned you!
