The Department of Finance (DOF) said that three-fourths of the record cash dividends remitted by government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) last year partly funded the social amelioration program (SAP).

In a statement, Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko said that about P119.1 billion of the P156.97 billion dividends from GOCCs in 2020 were used to ease the economic impact of the pandemic on the country’s poorest households and other vulnerable sectors.

According to Tionko, the total dividends remittance, which came from 57 GOCCs, was the highest amount ever collected since the implementation of Republic Act (RA) No. 7656 or the Dividends Law in 1994.

“This is also more than twice of the P69.17 billion dividend collection in 2019, inclusive of the dividend foregone. Without dividends foregone, cash remittances is P135.08 billion in 2020, and P52.59 billion in 2019,” Tionko said in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III.

Tionko said that P119.1 billion of the GOCCs' dividend remittances contributed to the government’s unprogrammed revenues.

“These GOCC dividends were primarily utilized for the SAP, which provided emergency assistance to low-income families to help tide them over during the strict lockdowns imposed earlier last year to curb the spread of COVID-19,” Tionko said.

She said the top 10 dividend contributors, led by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) with P40.53 billion, and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) with P17.98 billion, remitted 87 percent of the total dividends collected in 2020.

This year, Tionko said the they will continue to instill fiscal discipline among GOCCs, especially those with existing arrears, to ensure their compliance with the Dividends Law and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

She said the CAG was able to secure an agreement with the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) in 2020 for the transfer of the web-based GOCC Debt Recording and Monitoring System (GDRAMS) to the DOF.

This reporting system aims to streamline the data reporting process and facilitate the timely encoding and submission of the GOCCs of their debt reports, Tionko said.

“GDRAMS will help in the analysis of GOCC debt and better manage the government’s financial exposure and strategy formulation,” Tionko said.

She said the DOF will further enhance the GDRAMS and train GOCCS on the use of the system so that it could be fully implemented this year.

In partnership with the World Bank, the CAG also spearheaded efforts in 2020 to strengthen the government’s capacity to manage its contingent liabilities and evaluate risks from Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.