The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) should not be prejudged on the issue of the third-party auditor that the agency tapped to examine fees paid by Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to the government.
Former AGHAM Party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones made this appeal amid an impending Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation on third-party auditor Global ComRCI, which, according to news reports coming from the Senate, may have "duped" Pagcor and the government into giving them a multi-billion peso contract.
According to Palmones, it is important for Pagcor's side to be fully heard without any prejudgement from the legislators.
"Kung may question man dito, siguro ay ilatag nila ng mas maayos. Hindi yung gagamitin natin ang Senado para ipalabas na parang napakasama ho ng namahala ho dati dito or nagregulate dito sa POGO (If there are questions about it then lay them out properly. Let's not use the Senate to assail the regulators of POGO)," said Palmones, now a radio anchor over at DZRH.
Pagcor Senior Vice President for Offshore and Online Gaming, lawyer Jose Tria Jr., said in a radio interview with Palmones Thursday, Jan. 26 that the agency can prove that everything is above-board with its choice of third-party auditor for POGO earnings.
"Tiwala akong maipapaliwanag ng maayos ng Pagcor...mabigyan lang ng tamang pagkakataon (I'm confident that Pagcor can explain this...it just needs the proper opportunity)," Tria said.
He said that lawmakers' questions on Pagcor's POGO regulation are "welcome".
In the interview, Tria bared that Global ComRCI is actually a consortium comprised of three separate companies. Senators had questioned if the auditor was a legitimate company.
"Ang peculiarity po kasi nung auditor natin is, ano po kasi yan eh, consortium. Ibig sabihin, tatlong kumpanya na nagsama-sama to serve as our auditor. Sa atin naman po sa Pilipinas...hindi naman po kasi pinapayagan o wala tayong batas na nagrerehistro ng isang consortium (The peculiar thing about the editor is, it's a consortium. Meaning it's three companies that joined together to serve as our auditor. In the Philippines, there's no law that requires the registry of a consortium)," explained the Pagcor official.
"Pero yung tatlong kumpanya, individually registered. Medyo peculiar po kasi yung situation kaya hindi lang nagkakaintindihan (But the companies are individually registered. It's a peculiar situation, thus the confusion)," he said.
Tria said that Pagcor had specifically instructed Global ComRCI to "register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), at least".
Meanwhile, Palmones highlighted that Pagcor--as a regulator--had been instrumental in significantly raising the government's collections from online gaming companies.
From a mere P56 million in annual collections before the entry of POGOs, revenues collected from the online gaming industry reached P8 billion in 2019, or the year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
Tria said Pagcor stepped into the picture when online gaming operations began to mushroom, so much that government was already losing millions, if not billions in revenue.
"Ang nangyayari kasi dati, wala nang kinikitang maayos or hindi nakukuha ng government yung rightful share niya sa operations, kaya pumasok si Pagcor (Back then, the government was no longer getting its proper or rightful share from the operations, that's why Pagcor stepped in)," he said.
Pagcor further said that, from a very good performance in 2019--with a P7.96-billion revenue collection from POGO--the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic caused an enormous disruption in the operations of the industry. As POGO employees went home for the Chinese New Year celebrations in early 2020, travel bans and quarantine restrictions were suddenly imposed effectively putting a stop to the industry’s operations.
Moreover, for the POGO industry, this disruption has continued to the present as their employees are still not permitted to re-enter the country. This instability, coupled with other factors putting pressure on the industry, has led to the closure of almost half of the operators, while some of those which have remained are now just finishing their contractual agreements with their lessors and service providers, and have actually started to transfer majority of their operations to other jurisdictions. All these factors have contributed to the decline in the income of the industry, Pagcor said.