Criminal syndicates posing as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) are a national security concern, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said.

This was mentioned by Teodoro at the reception for Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson during last week's celebration of Sweden's National Day.

"The concern is that we should stop these syndicated criminal activities operating out of our base, which weaken our financial standing, our country ratings, [and] corrupt our society," he said.

"Now, I do not characterize these establishments as POGOs. These are not POGOs. POGOs, traditionally, are business processing outsourcing," he clarified.

Teodoro explained that "legitimate POGOs where the bets and the payoffs are taken from other countries [such as] horse racing in Europe, [and] sports betting; only the matching of bets and payouts are done here but the bets originate [from] outside [the country]" is different from the POGO's known in the Philippines which operate to evade the ban on gambling in China.

Col. Jean Fajardo, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson said Wednesday aside from computers, gadgets and military uniforms recovered during the ongoing implementation of search warrant in a POGO scam farm in Porac, Pampanga, operatives also allegedly recovered Chinese flag and safety bolts on Tuesday.

"There were around three to four sets of battle dress attire and we asked the CIDG, they said one of the uniforms is called the winter uniform. So if we were going to check it in the open source, it would appear that these uniforms are identifiable in a country, but we are not sure yet because again it is still under investigation," she said.

"The PNP, particularly the CIDG, is coordinating with other law enforcement agencies, (and to) our counterparts to establish whether the military uniforms as well as the Chinese flag recovered are just props, but let us wait for the determination in the ongoing investigation," she added. Robina Asido/DMS