Pasay scam hub’s sublessor is Marcos’ reclamation chair Alex Lopez

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) chairman Alexander T. Lopez, a presidential appointee, is the sublessor to a POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) company in Pasay which was found with traces of love scam operations, according to the sublease contract obtained by Rappler.

The sublease contract, finalized in January 2024, shows Lopez in his capacity as chairman and CEO of Pacific Concrete Products Inc. that was renting out the building’s ground floor to the 3D Analyzer Information Technologies Inc., which was raided recently by government authorities.

At the time of the raid, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had already banned POGOs.

The entire property is owned by the Philippine National Construction Corp. or PNCC, a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC). The contract shows that Lopez’s Pacific Concrete Products Inc. has a 25-year lease with the PNCC.

Lopez’s Pacific Concrete confirmed the sublease to Rappler, but said that 3D analyzer is just one among the long line of its sublessee. “Our company has been established since 1959, we are 65 years old, unlike other POGO scams you reported that’s new, there’s layering. We’re different, we are a Quadruple A contractor,” Pacific Concrete counsel Aldo Del Rosario told Rappler in a phone interview on Thursday, October 10.

Rappler asked to get Lopez’s side, but PRA referred us to the Pacific Concrete counsel. “Just like any lease arrangement, the lessee’s business is not the responsibility of the lessor, and the lessee is solely responsible to the authorities for its activities, legal and illegal,” the company said in a separate statement.

At the time of the sublease contract, Lopez was already appointed to the post by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., or in November 2023. Before his PRA appointment, Lopez ran for mayor of Manila in the 2022 elections under Marcos’ party, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP). He lost.

Lied to Pagcor?

3D Analyzer obtained an Internet Gaming License (IGL or the rebranded name of POGOs) in September 2023, which was valid until September 2025. According to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), the company informed them that they had already ceased operations. It turned out not to be true.

“Niloko nila ‘yung Pagcor, sabi nila hindi na sila operational. Puwede ba ‘yun? Eh may iba, bagong hire lang (They fooled Pagcor, they said they were non-operational. But how can that be? Some workers were newly hired),” Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) spokesperson Winston Casio told Rappler in an earlier interview.

A joint October 3 operation of PAOCC, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Immigration, discovered “red flags of love scamming that victimizes foreign nationals,” such as pre-registered sim cards, several phones per worker, and multiple windows open for Facebook, and secure messaging apps like Telegram and Signal. (Rappler sent messages on October 4 to 3D Analyzer via their listed email addresses in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but it has yet to reply.)

3D Analyzer’s corporate structure is composed mostly of Filipinos, except for one Chinese name who registered with the SEC as Filipino.

Del Rosario said they were aware that they were leasing to a POGO licensee, adding “our property was open to everybody.” 3D Analyzer paid Lopez’s company P3.5 million in monthly rentals, according to the contract

“‘Yung mga na-raid dati ‘yung mga iligal diba, ‘yung mga walang permit, but 3D Analyzer showed business permits from the LGU, gaming license from Pagcor and from there, it was on its face legitimate,” said Del Rosario.

(The ones raided before were the illegal ones right, those that did not have permits, but 3D Analyzer showed business permits from the local government unit, gaming license from Pagcor and from there, it was on its face legitimate.)

The biggest raided POGO hubs in Tarlac and Pampanga actually also had permits, which is why the local executives in Bamban and Porac were sanctioned. But 3D Analyzer’s operations stood out for their brazenness because at the time of the raid, all kinds of POGOs had already been banned by Marcos himself, and they were supposed to be already winding down. A total of 254 workers were caught in the raid, 190 of them were foreigners who had undergone inquest proceedings for violation of the country’s immigration law.

 “Pagdating namin dun isang araw, dalawang araw, tatlong linggo, nakita namin sa ID, mga bagong hire, kaya walang plano ang 3D Analyzer na tumigil ng operation, kaya hahabulin namin sila, hindi lang ang mga foreigners na ito,” said Casio.

(When we got there, they had just been there one day, two days, three weeks, we saw it in the IDs that they were just new hires, so there was really no plan by the 3D Analyzer to stop operations, so we are going after them, not just these foreigners.)

Del Rosario said they also got in touch with 3D Analyzer when Marcos announced the all-out POGO ban in July. “Yes we sent them a letter reiterating President Marcos’ statement during his SONA [State of the Nation Address] that POGOs should wind down by December 2024… unfortunately no [they did not answer],” said Del Rosario.

Del Rosario said they will cooperate in any investigation, but they have yet to receive any report from the raid. – Rappler.com