Chinese embassy in Manila denies senator’s claim about gambling-linked ‘tourism blacklist’

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Chinese embassy in the Philippines has denied claims by a senator in the Southeast Asian country that Beijing is planning to blacklist it due to illegal activities linked to its gambling industry.

In a statement on its website, the embassy did not name Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, but said in reference to “tourism blacklist remarks” that the sector remained an “important component of practical cooperation between China and the Philippines”.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic close to two million Chinese nationals travelled to the Philippines in 2019, making China the second largest source of tourists,” the embassy statement said.

In a second statement issued late on Tuesday, the embassy said: “The report of ‘tourist blacklist’ is misinformation. China has not placed the Philippines on its blacklist for tourism.”

Senator Zubiri told a Senate hearing earlier on Tuesday that Beijing’s envoy to Manila, Huang Xilian, said in a meeting
on Monday that “the Philippines now is part of a blacklist of tourist sites because they do not know if a tourist will be joining Philippine offshore gambling operators (Pogo) operations and they don’t know if their nationals who go to the Philippines will be safe from illegal activities being done by the triad, by the syndicates operating Pogos”.

The sector emerged in the Philippines in 2016 and grew exponentially, as operators capitalised on the country’s liberal gaming laws to target customers in China, where gambling is banned.

At their peak, Pogos employed more than 300,000 Chinese workers, but the pandemic and higher taxes have forced many to operate elsewhere.

The Southeast Asian nation welcomed more than 1.7 million Chinese visitors in 2019, according to data from the tourism department. Arrivals from China fell to 22,236 this year as Beijing sticks to its strict zero-Covid policy.

Beijing has repeatedly warned Chinese nationals against working in Pogos in the Philippines that have brought an influx of crime, including kidnapping and murder.

The government last month said it will stop the operations of 175 Pogos and deport about 40,000 Chinese workers as part of a crackdown on the industry, which delivers 190 billion pesos (US$3.2 billion) to the economy each year.

Meanwhile, a group representing the sector called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr to consider the economic impact of banning Pogos as he mulls banishing the businesses from the country.

“There are more than 23,000 Filipinos who will lose decent and well-paying jobs if the government shuts down legitimate Pogos and their service providers,” the Association of Service Providers and Pogos (ASPAP) spokesperson Mike Danganan said in a statement. (South China Morning Post)