Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) agents in cooperation with Angeles City police and the regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group carried out an order issued by President Duterte to shutter Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino after Pagcor revoked the operator’s permits. Police also said that management’s failure to provide immigration documents for at least some of the more than 1,000 Chinese nationals arrested last week contributed to the action.
Local and international media outlets have reported that Jack Lam Yin Lok (Jack Lam) founder of Macau’s Jimei Group, or someone using his name, left the country on November 29 on a Cathay Pacific flight bound for Hong Kong, citing government sources. Now, according to an airport official, there is no record of Lam’s departure. It has been reported that Lam is on the run after the president called for his arrest. Yesterday the Bureau of Immigration revoked Lam’s Subic-Clark investor’s visa after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issued a memorandum order. The Department of Justice has issued what is known in the Philippines as a lookout bulletin that will help airport personal contact authorities if Lam tries to leave or enter the country.
The Justice Secretary’s memo to a BI commissioner read in part, “We thus deem the issuance of an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO) against him prudent in order to at least monitor the itineraries of their flight, travel, and/or whereabouts, or if warranted, effectuate his immediate arrest pursuant to the directives of the President should the subject return to the country”
More than 1,000 Chinese immigrants are being warehoused under high security at the Fontana Convention Center after a 2am raid on the Fontana casino complex Friday, November 25. On November 29 it was reported that the BI had decided to deport all of the call center workers who were allegedly targeting gamblers on the Chinese mainland after the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed “concern over the large number of Chinese citizens detained by the Philippines.”