PORAC, Pampanga – In a swift move to secure his freedom, Porac Mayor Jaime “Jing” Capil voluntarily surrendered to authorities on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, and posted a P630,000 cash bond to post bail for provisional liberty following a court-issued arrest warrant on seven counts of graft tied to his alleged failure to regulate an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in his town until 2024. The surrender, confirmed by Acting Presiding Judge Josephine Advento of the Regional Trial Court in the National Capital Judicial Region Branch 265, came just days after police attempted to serve the warrant at his residence, where he was nowhere to be found.
The warrant, issued on November 28 by the court based on a complaint from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), accuses Capil of grave misconduct under Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act). Prosecutors allege he turned a blind eye to the operations of Lucky South 99, a POGO disguised as a business process outsourcing firm, despite its expired Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) gaming permit. The facility, sprawled across a 10-hectare property leased by an affiliate from the Grand Palazzo Royale, was raided in July 2024, unearthing a den of human trafficking, financial scams, torture, and prostitution involving 58 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese. Capil is accused of neglecting mandatory inspections and allowing the illegal activities to flourish unchecked.
Col. Eugene Marcelo, Pampanga provincial police chief, recounted the botched service: “The police served [the warrant] on Sunday night in Capil’s home in Porac, but he was not seen or found in that residence.” Capil’s camp, however, portrayed his appearance at the court as a proactive step. “He surrendered voluntarily,” the judge’s order affirmed, granting bail at P90,000 per count for the seven charges.
Capil, 57 and a reelectionist backed by the Nacionalista Party, has maintained his innocence, framing the case as political harassment amid his vocal anti-vice stance. Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s July 2024 ban on POGOs – which shuttered over 200 hubs and displaced 100,000 jobs – Capil claims to have closed 12 illegal operations in Porac alone. His lawyer, Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, decried the timing as “reelection sabotage,” vowing a motion to quash. “We’ve been at the forefront of the crackdown; now they’re turning on us?” Topacio fumed, hinting at a counter-complaint for abuse of authority.
This isn’t Capil’s first brush with controversy; Porac has been a POGO hotspot, with the New Horizons Hotel raid in July exposing squalid conditions and prompting 15 mayors in Pampanga for hearings. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla has warned: “No one gets a pass.” With Capil now free pending arraignment, the case tests the Marcos ban’s bite – in a province scarred by gaming’s ghosts, will justice flow or fizzle?