Philippine Justice Department denies POGO employees bribed officials to block repatriation or cancel visas

On October 12, local time, Philippine Assistant Secretary of Justice and Spokesperson Coravano (Jose Dominic F. Clavano) said that he had not received reports that illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Company (POGO) employees tried to bribe government employees to prevent them from being deported.

At the press conference, he said: "In order to answer your questions, no reports of bribery have been received. However, once the reports are received, we will conduct the necessary investigations and the necessary procedures will be in place."

At the same time, the Ministry of Justice is also studying the possibility of transferring employees from illegal online bookmakers to legal online bookmakers.

He added: "This is the immigration process we are studying, because they were previously from illegal online gambling companies. The initial policy of the Ministry of Justice was to let them return to China before they could work for legal online gambling companies. However, because many of them are seeking help, we are studying this option."

The Philippine Immigration Bureau announced on Wednesday that it would cancel the work visas of 1424 Chinese citizens working in illegal online gambling companies, while the authorities had previously planned to cancel the work visas of up to 48,000 foreign employees working in illegal gambling companies.