Senate hearing links Bamban Pogo to spying and hacking

Philippine senators said on Tuesday May 7 that intelligence reports tied a raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) compound in Bamban, Tarlac to surveillance activities and cyberattacks against state agencies, and questioned Bamban Mayor Alice Guo about her links to the operators¹.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who presided over the Senate hearing, said she received intelligence reports that the Pogo hub in Bamban town was not only linked to internet fraud, but also to surveillance activities and cyberattacks targeting different state agencies¹. She said recent incidents of government websites being defaced by unknown hackers were also traceable to the complex, located just behind the municipal building in Anupul village¹.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he received similar information that some establishments inside the Baofu compound were tied to online surveillance and hacking, but declined to give further details because the matter was discussed in an executive session with intelligence and law enforcement agencies¹. He said there was no evidence showing the cyberattacks were state-sponsored, adding that those involved could be contractors and private mercenaries working as agents of any country¹.

Authorities raided the 7.9-hectare property, owned by Baofu Land Development Inc., on March 13 after a Vietnamese worker escaped from a Pogo leasing one of the buildings inside the compound¹. More than 800 workers were rescued during the raid, almost 500 of them foreigners, and of the foreign workers held during the operation, 427 were Chinese¹.

The senators questioned Guo, who had facilitated the application for local permits of Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc., a Pogo raided in February 2023¹. The company allegedly continued operating after changing its business name to Zun Yuan Technology Inc., the subject of the March 13 operation of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission¹. Gatchalian said Baofu's electric meter was registered under the mayor's name and that she owned one of the luxury vehicles seized from the compound¹. Guo told the senators she owned 50 percent of Baofu, which had leased its property to Hongsheng, and denied involvement in the operations of Hongsheng and Zun Yuan¹.

At the House of Representatives, Davao Oriental Rep. Cheeno Almario, vice chair of the House committee on information and communications technology, said that while some attacks had been traced to Chinese actors, it was difficult to link these with Manila's maritime conflict with Beijing¹. The same panel heard last week that there were over 30,000 vulnerabilities in at least 2,002 state-owned digital assets, and that as of April it had preempted over 800 attempts to hack government agencies¹.

What it means for players

The hearing concerns a licensed Pogo compound and the agencies that oversee offshore gaming in the Philippines. For anyone gambling with Pogo-linked operators, the allegations center on the sites' owners and local officials rather than on betting rules, and no finding against any operator has been reported from this hearing. The Senate has not announced any change to licensing or to how players' accounts are handled. People who want to check how gambling is regulated in the country can read the Philippines gambling guide, and those concerned about fraudulent sites or scam operations can read Gambling Scams and Safety in Asia.

What happens next

Hontiveros called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to ban Pogos, saying he would be well-advised to do so now¹. No date has been reported for a decision on that call, and no further hearing date was given in the report¹.