The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has handed over an additional PHP5 billion ($89.5 million) in dividends for 2022 to the country’s national treasury.
In total, the country’s gaming operator and regulator handed PHP6.95 billion ($124.5 million) to the public coffers in 2022, a 9.32 percent increase from the declared dividends of PHP6 billion ($107.5 million) for the previous year.
‘Last year was a banner season for us in terms of revenue generation, and this
enabled us to set aside additional funds to support various national government
initiatives,’ PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco is cited as saying in a dispatch.
PAGCOR operations in the Philippines generated about PHP58.96 billion ($1.07 billion) from its gaming operations during the 2022 financial year, which reflects an increase of about 66 percent from the previous year’s total.
Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Anthony G. Mariño said during the ceremony to receive the amount, that the latest PAGCOR remittance will be utilized on high-impact
projects and programs that will benefit the Filipino people and help in full economic
recovery.
‘The latest cash dividend remittance from PAGCOR could not have come at a better
time. The national government, particularly the Department of Finance, is really working
towards ensuring the physical stability of the state after the pandemic, and having
additional funds would certainly aid in that effort,’ he said.
Filipino law mandates a remittance by government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) of at least 50 percent of their net earnings to the national government.
The figures come after calls for the body to divide its regulatory and operational arms in order to remove any “conflict of interest”, a proposal to ban offshore gaming operators in the nation (POGOs), and a call to privatize its assets to contribute to a newly proposed sovereign wealth fund (Maharlika Investment Fund).
