Philippine authorities have reportedly discovered a clandestine hospital providing cosmetic surgery to fugitives and con artists trying to evade arrest.
“You can create entirely new people out of them,” said Winston John Cascio, a spokesman for the President’s Organized Crime Task Force.
Police raided a hospital in a southern Manila suburb and found a second one, which authorities plan to close “within weeks.” The BBC reported:.
An anonymous tip tipped authorities off to an unlicensed hospital operating in Pasay City, just five miles south of the capital, Manila. Although initially described as a “solo” operation, intelligence officials confirmed the hospital’s existence to the committee.
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Inside a room at the secret hospital in Pasay, Philippines, which was raided by authorities in May. (Philippine Presidential Commission on Anti-Organized Crime)
Authorities arrested two Vietnamese doctors, one Chinese doctor, one Chinese pharmacist and one Vietnamese nurse, none of whom were found to have licenses to practice medicine in Vietnam.
The hospitals are an expansion of a growing problem in the Philippines with Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) that authorities say have ties to China. POGOs pose as online casinos but actually serve as fronts for “fraud centers” that employ hundreds of employees, including Chinese nationals.
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A clandestine hospital used by a suspected overseas gambling operator that may be acting as a front for international fraud. (Philippine Presidential Commission on Anti-Organized Crime)
The hospital allegedly helps POGO center workers completely change their appearance when they need to disappear and evade authorities, including with hair transplants, dentures and skin-whitening sessions. The committee found tools for these and many other procedures during a raid in May. The South China Morning Post reported..
“There was an operating table, and there was cosmetic surgery going on — dental implants, hair restoration, facial rejuvenation,” Cascio said. “When you combine all of that together, you can create a whole new human being.”
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He is one of the men who allegedly helped run the secret hospital. (Philippine Presidential Commission on Anti-Organized Crime)
“It is true that these POGO hospitals do not have licenses or permits from the appropriate government regulatory authorities,” he added.
But Cascio stressed that these hospitals only help POGO agents, not other types of criminals trying to evade arrest, and suggested there could be a “significant number” of such hospitals across the country.
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It appears to be an operating theatre in a secret hospital near the Philippine capital. (Philippine Presidential Commission on Anti-Organized Crime)
The committee will continue to investigate these clandestine hospitals, including their locations, the number of patients, and whether they adopt false identities after being discharged. The Immigration Bureau will also assist in the investigation.
POGO centers have become a major concern in the Philippines, where people worry about rampant criminal activity. Mayor Bambang was embroiled in a scandal in May when the Bureau of Immigration launched an investigation into whether he falsified his identity and background to run for mayor.
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Authorities alleged that Mayor Alice Guo was in fact Chinese and may have helped set up a POGO fraud center in Bangbang that facilitated “romance scams,” in which scammers used false identities to set up online romantic relationships and extort money from victims.
Cascio, spokesman for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, maintained that dealing with POGO centers remains a top concern because of possible links between local activity and “vast” international criminal operations.
