Forfeiture of scam paraphernalia

Barring any unforeseen hitches, Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) would leave the country by the end of this year pursuant to the directive that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had issued in his last State of the Nation Address.

In compliance with that order, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. said it would cease processing applications for gaming operations and withdraw the licenses it had earlier issued.

READ: Marcos: ‘All Pogos are banned!’

With regard to some 20,000 foreign nationals, most of whom are Chinese, who are employed by Pogos, the Bureau of Immigration had advised them to wind down their affairs preparatory to their leaving the Philippines.

When the Pogos exit, they would leave behind the permanent structures they had built and maintained for their operation, including housing and recreational facilities for their staff.

If those structures are as luxurious, or even less, as those found in Porac, Pampanga, and Bamban, Tarlac, that were raided and shut down by the authorities, their market value could run into billions of pesos.

With the way the Pogos have managed to go around our laws for years (obviously with the assistance of Filipino lawyers), it should not come as a surprise if the registered owners of those buildings are Chinese nationals who were able to gain Filipino citizenship through late birth registration, or corporations whose shareholders are either Filipino dummies or fictitious persons.

Since some of those Pogos are reportedly organized through “corporate layering” or creating multiple corporate entities to conceal the identity of the beneficial owners, the search for their true stockholders may not be easy, more so if the corporations are registered in tax havens based in different parts of the world.

READ: Lesser text scams? Thanks to Pogo ban, says Poe

In case their owners choose to remain anonymous for fear of being prosecuted for the crimes that had been committed in their premises and abandon the buildings, the local government officials concerned can take control over them pursuant to their authority under the Local Government Code.

The situation, however, would be different if their owners opt to reclaim possession of those structures and redesign them for commercial and residential purposes. Their ownership rights would have to be respected.

Note that some Pogos had reportedly engaged in financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture and murder.

That may bring into play the rule on the forfeiture in favor of the State of the instruments or tools used in the commission of a crime for the purpose of, among others, indemnifying their victims or to pay for any civil damages awarded by the court. By uncanny coincidence, when the Pogos were under scrutiny in the Senate, President Marcos signed into law Republic Act No. 120101, or the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act, that may apply in the disposition of Pogo buildings.

The law states, among others, that independent of the criminal cases that may be filed for crimes that may have been committed, “all properties, tools, instruments and/or any other non-liquid assets used …” for the commission of financial account scams shall be subject to civil forfeiture in accordance with the rules to be formulated by the Supreme Court.

The prohibited acts shall be considered as economic sabotage when committed under the following circumstances: (a) by a group of three or more persons conspiring with one another; (b) against three or more persons individually or as a group; (c) by using a mass mailer; or (d) through human trafficking.

Under those circumstances, the rules on forfeiture shall include a provision that would allow the Department of Justice (DOJ), at its initiative while the case is pending, to take possession of some of those assets for operational support and protection of the victims.

Considering the billions of pesos of assets the Pogos would be leaving behind, it bears watching how the DOJ would use that new grant of authority in their efficient and corruption-free disposition. INQ