WATCH: Who gave Marcos a standing ovation over POGO ban announcement?

'POGOs have brought innumerable and unspeakable social ills into the country. I commend the President for his resolute pronouncement,' says opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros

It was definitely the highlight of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA). Just when we thought the speech, which was running for about an hour and 20 minutes already, would sustain its unexciting delivery of the President’s accomplishment report, he said it: “Effective today, all POGOs are banned.”

Several seconds before that, however, Marcos already got a standing ovation from lawmakers when he prefaced the topic with the crimes that Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) had been responsible for. 

“Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder. The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop,” the President said to cheers from the House of Representative plenary hall. 

So guess who was among the lawmakers who rose to their feet? Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros, whose committee has uncovered precisely these POGO-linked crimes in a still ongoing investigation. She called it a huge victory for the entire country.

“Bilang tagapangulo ng Senate committee on women na nanguna sa imbestigasyon tungkol sa mga krimeng nakakabit sa POGO, hindi ko matatawaran ang saya at ginhawa ng pagpapabawal ng POGO sa bansa,” Hontiveros said in a statement after the SONA. 

(As chairperson of the Senate committee on women, which spearheaded the investigation into crimes linked to POGO, I am overjoyed and cannot be more relieved by this ban on POGOs from the country.)

“POGOs have brought innumerable and unspeakable social ills into the country. I commend the President for his resolute pronouncement,” she added.

Saying he had heard public clamor against POGOs, Marcos instructed the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation “to wind down and cease the operations of POGOs by the end of the year.”

The President and Hontiveros were on the same page as to what happens or can be done next:

• To ensure that Filipinos employed by POGOs will be given alternative jobs 
• For everyone — from law enforcers and government officials to ordinary Filipinos — to “be vigilant, principled” (Marcos) so policies will be in place to “prevent industries like POGOs from ever emerging again” (Hontiveros).
• The ban is just a first step in a long process of solving the many governance, economic, and societal problems that led POGOs to flourish in the Philippines. 

The senator said her committee will continue its hearings, even as she thanked the victims, survivors, whistleblowers, and government agencies that cooperated in the Senate probe. “We owe you this victory,” she said.

And to POGOs both legal and illegal, Hontiveros had this to say: “Goodbye.” – Rappler.com