ONLINE lending apps (OLA) operations and their ill effects are proving to be far worse than POGO and also even worse than online gambling, that they must all be banned altogether.
This warning was issued by Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) Executive Director Secretary Gilbert Cruz, who stressed that the evils brought about by OLA are actually worse than those spawned by POGO operations, since OLA directly affects Filipinos themselves and at the rate it is going, OLA might even dislodge online gambling from the top spot when it comes to the ways that lives and society are being destroyed.
Cruz told the “MACHRA Balitaan” held by the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association (MACHRA) at the Harbor View Restaurant in Manila that OLA, which is also open to all ages via cellphone, promises quick and easy money via a lending scheme that will eventually bury the borrower in neck-deep problems due to the huge interests ranging from 35 to 40 percent.
The lenders, he said, get the borrowers’ contact details, email, payslips and social media accounts, among others and in the event of failure to pay on time, the borrowers are subjected to various harassment schemes to shame them publicly by informing all their friends and workmates via text, email and social media, even using artificial intelligence that would depict the borrower in a lewd situation like sex videos.
According to Cruz, they have recorded at least six OLA-related deaths. The victims, he said, took their own lives due to the relentless harassment and shaming they have been subjected to for failure to pay the money they borrowed on time.
He bared that even during the initial stages of their work against POGO and the crimes it has spawned, the surge of LOA and its negative effects were already making it to their radar.
While the crimes committed by alien POGO individuals were directed against their fellow nationals, in the case of LOA, it is Filipinos against Filipinos, although there is a possibility that the foreigners behind POGO operations may also be behind LOA operations using Filipinos as keyboard warriors, said Cruz.
Owing to this, Sec. Cruz said that along with online gambling, OLA must also be totally banned in the country, as it poses more and worse ill effects to Filipinos, both young and old.
