Former Philippines Senate Minority leader Franklin Drilon has called on the government to privatize gaming regulator PAGCOR as well as the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in order to fund the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund.
The sovereign fund, currently being debated by lawmakers, would if established see the government invest into financial markets and large-scale infrastructure projects around the world.
It has previously been slated that the fund would receive 10% of the gross gaming revenues generated from PAGCOR casinos, however Drilon told ABS-CBN News that privatizing PAGCOR and the PCSO would generate Php300 billion in annual revenues for the fund while solving the issue of the gaming regulator also operating casinos.
“PAGCOR should do away with operating casinos and PCSO, we have no business running the lotto and small-town lotteries,” Drilon said.
“We are shooting two birds in one stone by privatizing the gaming industry, to generate funds and eliminate the source of corruption.”
The government “should not be directly involved in lottery and casino operations,” he added.
The idea of privatizing PAGCOR’s casino operations has long been mooted as a means of raising cash, however critics of the privatization model point to the sizeable revenues PAGCOR’s casinos bring in each year, which in 2019 saw the agency remit more than Php56 billion (US$1 billion) to the government through its mandated contributions and other corporate social responsibility programs.
It was these significant contributions that ultimately saw a previous privatization push abandoned with then-PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo telling IAG in 2018 that the sale of its casino assets had been shelved because they were generating such strong cash flows.
A 2010 offer by San Miguel Corp’s Vice Chairman, Ramon S. Ang, to privatize PAGCOR was described as “too cheap”.
Under the government’s current model, the Maharlika Investment Fund will be funded by surpluses from government-owned and controlled corporations.
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