Authorities found more than a hundred mobile phones, sim cards, receipts, and passports inside the three vaults that were retrieved from the Pogo hub in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. | CDN Photo/ Emmariel Ares
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Almost one month after a hotel in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu was uncovered as a Pogo hub, authorities forcibly opened the three metal vaults retrieved from inside the establishment.
More than a hundred mobile phones, SIM cards, passports, receipts, keys, and documents were recovered after the double-drawer vaults were opened on Thursday, September 26.
On August 31, law enforcers raided the Tourist Garden Hotel in search of eight illegally detained Indonesians at the request of the Indonesian embassy.
To their surprise, the hotel was actually a Pogo hub that housed a total of 162 foreign nationals believed to be involved in illegal scams.
The foreigners claimed they were tricked into coming to the Philippines for work and were held against their will after their passports were taken by their employers.
Of those, 16 foreigners and one Filipino were charged by the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) with qualified trafficking in persons.
Following the inquest proceedings, operatives served a search warrant and seized computer sets, mobile phones, documents, and vaults from the hotel on September 5.
Authorities used grinders and crow bars to pry open the vaults that they confiscated from the Lapu-Lapu Pogo hub. | CDN Photo/ Emmariel Ares
On Thursday, NBI-7 opened the three vaults at their headquarters in Cebu City under a search warrant.
NBI-7 director Lawyer Renan Oliva stated that the confiscated items, which were likely used in the illegal activities, will be used as evidence to file additional charges of money laundering and illegal scams against the operators.
“A very big question will be: why are these cellphones inside the vault? They must contain information that is important to the operation of their illegal business. That’s why they were hidden in the vault,” he stated.
NBI-7’s next step, after conducting an inventory, will be to apply for another warrant for the disclosure of data from the confiscated gadgets.
Hundreds of computers and mobile phones from the Lapu-Lapu City Pogo hub will be subjected to examination. | CDN Digital Photo/ Emmariel Ares
They will then coordinate with their cybercrime division in Manila for the examination of the seized devices.
Oliva also disclosed that the arraignment for the qualified trafficking cases NBI-7 filed against the 17 operators is scheduled for October 3.
He added that they have already sent a notice of the schedule to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), which currently has custody of the foreign nationals.
Oliva assured that they will provide proper security for the transfer of the foreigners to Lapu-Lapu City for the arraignment, as well as for the witnesses who will be present.