FACT CHECK: Bong Go claim on Duterte ‘not allowing’ illegal activities needs context

Distancing former president Rodrigo Duterte from persons who have been linked to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said during a Senate hearing that Duterte “has always been against illegal activities.” This needs context.

STATEMENT

In his closing remarks at the Sept. 9 hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality on the POGOs, Go said he has known the former president for the longest time, including his dislike for illegal activities even when he was mayor of Davao City.

The senator said:

“Hindi talaga pumapayag ng ilegal [na gawain] ‘yon. Noong mayor siya, binalaan niya nga mismo ‘yung parating nali-link sa kanya na si Michael Yang sa Davao.”

(He doesn’t allow illegal activities. When he was mayor, he warned the one always being linked to him – Michael Yang – in Davao.)

Source: Senate of the Philippines, Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality (September 9, 2024), Sept. 9, 2024, watch from 5:19:54 to 5:20:04

He added:

“Sinabihan niya ‘yan, ‘pag nag-negosyo ka ng ilegal dito, ibabaon kita nang buhay dito. Ibig sabihin, ayaw niya po ng ilegal… si dating pangulong Duterte. Lalo na noong naging presidente po siya, ayaw niya ng ilegal sa kanyang pamumuno.”

(He told him: If you do illegal business here, I will bury you alive. That means former president Duterte hates illegal activities. Especially when he became president, he hated illegal activities to flourish under his term.)

Source: watch from 5:20:17 to 5:20:33

FACT

While no court has yet found Duterte guilty of involvement in illegal activities, his name has been mentioned in some ongoing investigations into unlawful undertakings during his terms as Davao City mayor and as the country’s president.

Former Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Edgar Matobato and its former leader Arturo Lascañas have identified Duterte as the person who ordered the killings of suspected criminals and his enemies when he was mayor of Davao City.

When Duterte became president and launched a campaign against illegal drugs, money from POGOs were allegedly used to fund the reward system for killing suspected drug users, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido.

Espenido testified during an Aug. 28 House quad-committee hearing into the possible links across illegal POGOs, illegal drugs and extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration.

The International Criminal Court’s probe covers alleged extrajudicial killings by the DDS from November 2011 to June 2016, and those that occurred under the Duterte administration’s drug war from July 1, 2016 to March 16, 2019.

BACKSTORY

Republic Act 11590, which Duterte signed into law on Sept. 22, 2021, recognized the legitimacy of offshore online gambling and imposed taxes on POGOs.

Four years prior to the law, Duterte issued Executive Order No. 13 on Feb. 2, 2017, seeking to strengthen his administration’s efforts against illegal gambling and clarify the jurisdiction and authority of concerned agencies in the regulation and licensing of gambling and online gaming facilities.

Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro has called into question the said order, stating that it “brought online gambling into life,” and circumvented the law which created the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the country’s regulatory authority for gambling in the country.