Pagcor transmits P14.5B to Office of President for COVID-19 fight

The country’s gaming regulator raised its remittances to the state’s coffers to help fund the government’s fight the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).

In a press statement, Pagcor said it transferred last Monday (April 13) an additional P6 billion for President Rodrigo Duterte’s socio-civic funds project, which brought the agency’s total contribution to the Office of the President to P14.5 billion.

This brings to P20.5 billion the total amount that Pagcor has remitted to the government coffers to help fight COVID-19.

“The recent remittance to the Office of the President is pursuant to our mandate to allocate its earnings to finance infrastructure and socio-civic projects,” Pagcor chair and CEO Andrea Domingo said.

Last March, Pagcor turned over P6 billion to the Office of the President, in addition to the P2 billion and P500 million remittances that were released on in separate tranches.

These were on top of the P12 billion cash dividends that the agency remitted to the National Treasury later in March.

Domingo said Pagcor’s remittances to the Palace are intended for various funding requirements relative to Duterte’s declaration of a nationwide state of public health emergency that runs until April 30, 2020.

“Despite experiencing losses due to the suspension of operations of our owned and licensed gaming facilities for almost a month now, we are doing our best to provide much-needed help to the government during this time of crisis,” she said.

Apart from its remittances to the national government, Pagcor and its licensees, have also been donating food packs, personal protective equipment and other medical essentials to front liners, hospitals and communities in the National Capital Region and some parts of Luzon.

The charitable arms of Entertainment City casino licensees, like Okada Manila Foundation, have also each given P25 million in cash to the Philippine Heart Center and Lung Center of the Philippines.

Bloomberry Cultural Foundation had led the retrofitting of Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Ninoy Aquino Stadium into temporary COVID-19 hospitals.

Edited by TSB