WITH ORDEALS TO TELL Among the Chinese language Pogo employees who filed a grievance for human trafficking towards Cassandra Li Ong and 53 different persons are seen on the Division of Justice on Tuesday. —Richard A. Reyes
MANILA, Philippines — Fortunate South 99 consultant Cassandra Li Ong and 53 others have been accused by 10 Chinese language nationals of trafficking and forcing them to work on the unlawful Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) in Porac, Pampanga, the place they had been rescued throughout a raid in June.
The foreigners claimed they had been kidnapped, held towards their will, and coerced into changing into employees of Fortunate South 99, one in every of two Pogo hubs in Central Luzon on the middle of a deepening felony investigation.
This was what they claimed in a grievance filed on the Division of Justice on Tuesday.
Apart from the Chinese language nationals, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Fee (PAOCC) and the Philippine Nationwide Police had been listed as complainants within the doc charging Ong and the corporate with certified human trafficking, a nonbailable offense.
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“One of many Chinese language nationals was lent P450,000 and gambled for 3 nights enjoying mahjong. When he couldn’t repay the debt, he was taken on to Fortunate South,” Prosecutor Ramoncito Ocampo mentioned at a press briefing.
15-18 hours
They had been promised freedom as soon as the debt was absolutely settled. “[But] after they’re near … paying off their remaining steadiness, [the Pogos] promote them to a different Pogo. So, the victims simply maintain getting transferred from one place to a different,” Escalona mentioned.
These victims had been allegedly being pressured to work for 15 to 18 hours a day to run on-line or cell phone scams.
“In case you don’t do the work … you can be tortured. In case you attempt to escape and get caught, you can be depressing,” Escalona mentioned.
Fortunate South 99 was raided and shuttered by legislation enforcers on June 4 on suspicion that it was concerned in torture, human trafficking and unlawful scamming actions.
Along with Ong, different key respondents had been Ronelyn Baterna, Fortunate South 99’s company secretary; Dennis Cunanan, the corporate’s communications and authorities relations head; Duanren Wu, recognized because the “high boss” of Whirlwind Corp. which leased land to the corporate; and Zhang Jie, president of Fortunate South 99.
It was Zhang, a Singaporean, who assisted dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, in reserving a lodge in Batam, Indonesia, when she fled the Philippines, in response to PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio, who mentioned it proved that the Pogos in Bamban and Porac had been “interconnected.”
A serious shareholder of Whirlwind, Ong can be the girlfriend of Guo’s brother, Wesley.
Ong, who, together with Guo’s “sister” Shiela, was arrested in Indonesia on Aug. 22 and deported to the Philippines on the identical day. She has since appeared in congressional hearings on unlawful Pogos, the place she denied serving as a “dummy” for big-time Pogo buyers.
Apart from officers and incorporators of Fortunate South 99, the grievance additionally implicated a number of people who had been allegedly engaged in “promoting Chinese language nationals” to the Pogo, and bodyguards of the “Chinese language bosses” who “tortured” workers caught escaping from the compound.
‘Piercing the veil’
Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Ty, head of the Inter-Company Council In opposition to Trafficking, mentioned the prosecutors didn’t give credence to Ong’s “typical” protection that she was not concerned in Pogo operations as a result of she had solely acted as a lessor.
“For our workforce, Fortunate South 99 and Whirldwind Corp. are only one. That’s why we stored saying that there’s a conspiracy,” Ty mentioned, citing the precept of “piercing the veil of company fiction.”
Beneath this doctrine, courts shall disregard the separate authorized character of a company’s separate authorized standing to carry its shareholders or administrators personally responsible for the company’s actions or money owed.
“We is not going to enable criminals to make use of the company legislation, or layering, to hold out their felony actions. This union of Fortunate South 99 and Whirlwind is not any atypical enterprise. One of many issues mentioned by our fiscal, by our complainants, is that this enterprise is a felony enterprise,” Ty mentioned.
The prosecution can be seeking to file felony and civil forfeiture expenses to permit the federal government to grab belongings used for human trafficking, the official mentioned.
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