The secret hospitals offering criminals new faces in the Philippines

Hair transplant tools, dental implants and skin-whitening IV drips have been seized from an underground clinic in the Philippines suspected of helping criminals transform their identities to avoid arrest.

Police raided the venue in Pasay City, south of Manila, in May, and two larger ones look likely to be closed down over the next few weeks. Authorities say these "clandestine hospitals have been offering plastic surgery services to fugitives and scam centre workers", said Kelly Ng for the BBC. 

'New person'

Although the venues "look like regular clinics on the outside", once you enter, "you'll be shocked by the type of technology they have", Winston John Casio, a spokesperson for the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission, told the broadcaster. You could "create an entirely new person" from the equipment found in the Pasay City clinic.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

They "don't ask for the proper identification cards", and "you could be a fugitive, or you could be an illegal alien", he said. The hospitals may also offer more general treatments.

"The commission believes a 'good number' of these illicit medical centres may be operating across the country," said South China Morning Post's This Week in Asia.

Authorities have caught two Vietnamese doctors, a Chinese doctor, a Chinese pharmacist and a Vietnamese nurse – none of whom were licensed to practise medicine in the Philippines as foreign professionals.

In 2022, immigration officials also arrested a suspected Chinese mafia member who allegedly underwent plastic surgery to evade detection. Casio believes that case may have been linked to an underground clinic.

Online gaming and scams

The hospitals have been linked to the country's offshore gaming operators sector. Online casinos or Pogos (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) cater to players in mainland China, where gambling is illegal. According to the police, Pogos have also been used as cover for serious criminal activities such as telephone scams and human trafficking.

Police rescued more than 150 Chinese workers after raiding a Pogo compound in Porac, north of Manila. They seized equipment used for torture, scamming and "even camouflage uniforms they suspected were of Chinese military origin", said the South China Morning Post.

Although Pogos flourished under Rodrigo Duterte, president from 2016 to 2022, his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr has "mounted a crackdown" on them, citing their criminal links, said the BBC.

The current president "does not want the Philippines to be painted as a 'scam hub'", said Casio, and he has given the authorities "a directive to go after scam farms because of how they have been targeting large numbers of people from all over the world".

The battle continues. "We won't stop until we get them," said Casio, "because the implication in relation to other transnational crimes is immense."