Sunstar Cebu
Espinoza: Could Mayor Ahong Chan be in hot water over Pogo?
Free Zone
Elias L. Espinoza
Published on:
Sep 11, 2024, 7:57 pm
There’s no space for illegal business in Lapu-Lapu City… tanang illegal nga himuon, drogas man o Pogo, anything illegal kontra sa mayor (all illegal activities, whether drugs or Pogo, anything illegal is the mayor’s enemy), stressed Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan after serving the cease and desist order (CDO) to close down the operations of Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus last Sept. 2, 2024.
An illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub was discovered inside the hotel last Aug. 31.
Mayor Chan issued the CDO only after the composite team of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Social Welfare and Development raided the hotel on Aug. 31 that resulted in the arrest of 162 foreign nationals involved in illegal Pogo operations.
Apprehended during that raid by the composite team were Indonesians and Chinese and Myanmar nationals. In a statement, Mayor Chan said: “Mao ni atong cease and desist order on the basis nga nagpahigayon sila og online scam using their establishment nga gilukatan nila og permit nato, unya dunay mga illegal activities nga ilang gipahigayon (this is the cease and desist order on the basis that they operated an online scam using their establishment, which they were able to secure a permit but it turned out they were running illegal activities).
The CDO also covered the Nanyang Zhongjing Tobacco Corp., Hwa Yan Realties Inc., Royal Suwu KTV Corp. and Asean Gufeng International Trade Corp., which are tenants of the hotel.
However, in the mayor’s previous public statements, particularly last July 23 during an interview at SunStar Cebu’s online news program Beyond the Headlines, he clearly stated that there were no “legal” Pogo hubs in his city and neither did they approve applications for Pogo operations. His statement came after the uncovering of the illegal Pogo operations in Bamban, Tarlac and in Porac, Pampanga.
The Pogo hub in Barangay Agus was the first to be discovered in the Visayas after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a nationwide ban on offshore gaming operations.
It may be recalled that the city mayor was the guest of honor during the hotel’s opening on Sept. 13, 2019.
The city mayor also accepted the donation of 22 computer units from Chinese national Zhao Shouqi, president of the Tourist Garden Hotel and head of the Lapu-Lapu City Chinese Guild.
Mayor Chan denied, on his Facebook post, that Zhao was his consultant on Chinese business promotions and that the consultant’s ID Zhao was wearing was a fake. So why didn’t he accuse Zhao of possessing a fake City Hall ID?
During the Sept. 2 press conference, Mayor Chan, when asked about Zhao and the latter organization’s largesse, said donations are welcome if these fall under a group’s “corporate social responsibility.”
To recall, the NBI 7 rescued 34 Chinese women in an entrapment operation on Aug. 2, 2019 at the Royal One KTV, which is inside the Tourist Garden Hotel compound and arrested female Chinese nationals, namely Zeng Dan, Quan Yiqing, Xiuzhu Wei and Xiushen Wei for recruiting women from China, who were promised jobs in a legal Pogo only to end up as prostitutes here in Cebu.
Despite this raid of the NBI, Mayor Chan did not order the hotel’s closure. It was reported that he inspected the hotel’s business permits on Aug. 6, 2019 and declared that there was no reason to close the establishment.
Putting all these together, could Mayor Chan be held responsible by the Department of the Interior and Local Government for his failure to uncover the illegal operations of Pogo inside the Tourist Garden Hotel and for his inaction on the raid of Royal One KTV?