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CEBU CITY, Philippines – The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) will be checking to see if the four Indonesian nationals they are still searching for were among the foreigners found inside another alleged Pogo hub in Moalboal, Cebu.
This is part of their efforts to find the eighth Indonesian, who was part of their initial rescue operation, and three others whose passports were found inside the vaults seized from the Lapu-Lapu Pogo hub.
NBI-7 director, Lawyer Renan Oliva, recalled that the discovery of the Pogo hub in Brgy. Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, last August 31 stemmed from a request from the Indonesian embassy for the rescue of eight Indonesian nationals.
Unexpectedly, the hotel turned out to be a Pogo hub, and law enforcers found a total of 169 foreign nationals inside. Among them were seven of the targets of the rescue operation.
One individual, however, has still not been located.
A little while later, NBI-7 found three Indonesian passports hidden inside the three vaults from the hotel. These men are also nowhere to be found.
Oliva said that they will be coordinating with the local authorities who discovered the alleged Pogo hub in Moalboal on October 10 to check if these four Indonesians were among the 38 foreigners taken into custody at the resort.
Another possibility that NBI-7 is considering is that the four men may have already fled Cebu province. Due to this, Oliva said that they are coordinating with their counterparts in Manila.
Oliva also gave an update on the search warrant for disclosure of computer data that they applied to assess the contents of the numerous computer sets and mobile phones they confiscated from the Lapu-Lapu Pogo hub.
READ: Moalboal Pogo hub: Chinese nationals may be part of Lapu-Lapu group
38 Chinese nabbed in another suspected Pogo hub in Cebu
He told reporters that their application for the warrant will be heard by the Cybercrime unit in Lapu-Lapu City on October 21.
Furthermore, he shared that they will be applying for another search warrant to open five more vaults that they found inside one of the Chinese operator’s living quarters at the hotel. A separate warrant is needed to open the other vaults, as they were not among those found at the work station.
Oliva explained that this is one of the instructions of the Anti-Money Laundering Council for the filing of additional charges to the 16 individuals they already charged with qualified trafficking in persons.
As of this writing, NBI-7 is still waiting for the rescheduling of the arraignment of the case after it was delayed last October 3 due to a motion to quash the information. /clorenciana