President Ferdinand Marcos. (AFP FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — As the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was unable to dispose of any assets from the Marcos dictatorship and its cronies last year, the national government’s privatization proceeds fell to a record-low P320.95 million.
The latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed that all of the revenues from privatization activities in 2021 were contributed by the Department of Finance (DOF)-attached Privatization and Management Office (PMO).
Last year, the PMO generated P17.14 million from sales, P83.65 million in lease rental, and P182.15 million in other income. The PMO also collected P38.01 million in dividends from Semirara Mining Corp. in 2021.
The PGCC, on the other hand, generated zero privatization income last year. In 2020, the PCGG raised P139.27 million from privatization.
Treasury data showed that last year’s total privatization proceeds were the lowest yearly haul since 1990.
The government raised the biggest amount of P90.62 billion from privatization in 1997, of which P25.27 billion were contributed by the PCGG, including the P25.24-billion payment of Metro Pacific Assets Holdings Inc. from the sale of 111,415 shares recovered from Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp.
The PCGG had raised a total of P120.46 billion in additional revenues from the disposition of Marcos-related ill-gotten wealth from 1990 to 2020, the largest yearly haul of which amounted to P62.68 billion in 2015 during the time of former president Benigno Aquino III.
Treasury data showed that the 2015 PGCC income included “the transfer of the coco levy funds to the special account in the general fund amounting to P60.07 billion,” which were “proceeds from the sale of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) series 1 preferred shares, including interest income.”
The government had programmed to raise P500 million from privatization yearly from 2021 until 2023, budget documents had shown.
While the Duterte administration will no longer slap new tax measures due to the harder times wrought by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the government plans to privatize a couple of idle mining assets to generate additional revenues, narrow the budget deficit, and repay ballooning debt.
The government was also looking into privatizing the commercial functions of the state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) as well as Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
President Duterte’s economic team led by the DOF will turn over to the next administration a fiscal consolidation plan, which may include new or higher taxes, spending cuts on non-priority sectors, and economic growth drivers to enlarge revenue collections.
Privatization proceeds formed part of the national government’s non-tax take. Last year, non-tax revenues fell by almost a fourth to P265.8 billion from P351.5 billion in 2020 due even as the actual take exceeded the target by nearly three-fifths after collections normalized, unlike in 2020 when the national government squeezed more dividends from state-run corporations to fund COVID-19 response at the onset of the pandemic.
—BEN O. DE VERA
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