Pagcor turns in record high remittances

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) maintained its position as the top cash contributor to the government’s coffers among 53 state-owned firms, thanks to the booming casino and online gaming industries.

In a statement, the country’s gaming regulator said it had turned over a total of P16.17 billion in dividends to the Bureau of the Treasury last week, making it the government’s third largest source of revenues after the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs.

The amount, which was Pagcor’s highest one-time cash dividends remittance, nearly matched the state-run gaming agency’s P17.16 billion cumulative cash dividends from 2011 to 2017.

“Since 2011, Pagcor has been remitting cash dividends to the government. But it was in 2018 when we posted the highest amount,” Pagcor chair and CEO Andrea Domingo said. “Because of this, Pagcor’s total remitted cash dividends from 2011 to the present have reached P33.33 billion.”

The Department of Finance classifies state-owned corporations that remit at least P1 billion cash dividends to the government as part of the GOCC Elite Circle, or so-called Billionaires’ Club, of which the gaming regulator is consistently a part of.

Domingo explained that every year, the agency remitted cash dividends to national coffers, pursuant to Republic Act 7656, which required government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) to remit at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings as cash, stock or property dividends to the national government.

The remittance was made during the 2019 Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations Day ceremonies in Malacañang Palace on July 11, 2019.

The Department of Finance reported that this year, the cash dividends collected from a total of 53 GOCCs reached a record-high of P61.3 billion—surpassing last year’s P51.24 billion milestone. Pagcor’s dividend contribution was the highest among the GOCCs.

The 2019 dividend collections, according to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, will “help provide funds for the pensions of the country’s uniformed personnel and augment funding for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which was created under the new Rice Tariffication Law.”