Pagcor to POGO: Cease and desist

THE Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has cracked the whip on an offshore gaming service provider in Las Piñas City suspected to be involved in criminal activities.

In a Show Cause Order addressed to its authorized representative, PAGCOR ordered Xinchuang Network Technology, Inc. to explain in detail its defenses against the allegations facing it, and why the state-run gaming regulatory firm should not cancel its Certificate of Accreditation and Authority to Operate.

SEEING RED. Members of the Philippine sailboat team practice for an international competition at Manila Bay, considered one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world, on Sunday. Lino Santos

CA gets papers for 25 senior AFP appointees

THE bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA) has received the appointment papers of 25 newly promoted senior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“The CA received their appointment papers from Malacañang on June 27,” Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, CA assistant minority leader, said on Sunday.

“The batch is composed of a major general from the Air Force, 20 brigadier generals from the Air Force, Army, and the Marines, three commodores from the Navy, plus a lone colonel from the Army,” Pimentel said.

Their appointments won’t be deliberated upon by the CA until after the second regular session of the 19th Congress opens on July 24.

The CA is empowered by the 1987 Constitution to scrutinize the competence, fitness, and integrity of key presidential appointees, including military officers from the rank of colonel or naval captain, and to approve or disapprove them. Rio Araja

Alongside the show cause, PAGCOR ordered Xinchuang to cease and desist from all offshore gaming activities pending the completion of the investigation being conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The PNP Anti Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) also said four Chinese fugitives were among the persons arrested in the raid. In a text message to ABSCBN, PNP-ACG spokesperson Capt. Michelle Sabino confirmed the arrests but did not provide details.

This developed as the lawyer representing Xinchuang has demanded the PNP allow the medical treatment of at least 13 of the firm’s foreign workers still in police custody after they were seriously injured during the raid at their work compound in Barangay Almanza, Las Pinas City.

In a letter to PNP National Capital Region Police Office Chief PMaj. Gen. Edgar Okubo, lawyer Ananias

Christian Vargas condemned “this exhibition of police brutality against these unarmed foreign nationals, and declare that the use of force is not commensurate with the necessity to prevent escape, as you claim in your press statement.”

Combined operatives of the NCRPO and PNP Anti-Cybercrime and Intelligence groups raided the Xinjiang compound early on June 29, when Vargas said at least three of their workers suffered physical injuries “as a result of the severe mauling by your police officers on the ground.”