Inside Asian Gaming

27 The country’s leaders are not deaf, however, to persisting, more sceptical commentary on the local market by some outsiders. Some politicians are now said to be actively considering privatising Pagcor. Senator Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III of the Liberal Party, one of the three front-runners in the country’s presidential elections to be held in May, is said to be the keenest on the Pagcor privatisation option. He is running on a general platform of reform for the public sector. But it’s not clear how Pagcor privatisation would work in practice. Sen. Aquino is the only son of the late former President Corazon Aquino and the late formerSenatorBenignoAquino, Jr. The latter was a frontrunner for the Philippines presidency to replace Ferdinand Marcos, until Sen. Aquino’s notorious (and filmed) murder on the tarmac at Manila International Airport as he returned from a three-year exile in the United States in August 1983. The airport now bears his name. Whether a separate public body would be set up to regulate the whole Philippines land based gaming industry if Pagcor were privatised isn’t certain at this stage. Credit due Several gaming executives at the recent Asia’s GEM Congress and Expo organised by Pagcor said Dr Efraim Genuino, the incumbent chairman of Pagcor, and Rafael ‘Butch’ Francisco, the President of Pagcor, deserved credit for moving Pagcor and the Philippines market in the right direction. “You can’t change a place like the Philippines overnight,” one senior industry figure suggested to Inside Asian Gaming . “Western investors tend to approach a developing market such as the Philippines with a fair degree of tub thumping and a ‘this is how it should be done’ attitude. “In this part of the world, you get more done by approaching things in increments and trying to work with the top people to improve standards of corporate governance than by trying to make the top people look bad. Few people respond well to that,” added the source. “Dr Genuino knows what needs to be done. I think he deserves a lot of credit for initiatives to bring in outside investors—for example, at NewportCityandsoonManila Bay,” the source added. Another source among the suppliers exhibiting at Asia’s GEM said: “We’ve certainly noticed we do more business at Asia’s GEM now that there are more private operators in the Philippines market.” Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III Dr Efraim Genuino (seated) and Rafael ‘Butch’ Francisco