The new inter-agency rules aim to give investigators a framework tailored to Pogo-linked crime and support a coordinated response
4-MIN READ4-MINSam BeltranPublished: 10:00am, 30 Apr 2026Philippine authorities have introduced a new national playbook for raiding and prosecuting online scam centres, as criminal networks once tied to the country’s offshore gaming industry splinter into smaller and harder-to-detect operations.The rules aim to close gaps exposed during earlier raids, when agencies struggled to coordinate evidence, freeze assets, identify trafficking victims and build cases against operators who often left few physical traces.
Analysts and former officials said the bigger test, however, would be whether the new playbook could keep pace with criminal networks already moving from large Pogo compounds into more elusive operations.
The new Inter-Agency Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), approved on April 22, set out how the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission (PAOCC) and other law enforcement and cybercrime agencies should gather intelligence, process digital evidence, handle victims and suspects, preserve assets and pursue prosecutions.
