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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Hontiveros slams Pagcor's inability to collect P2.2B from POGO licensee

Hontiveros slams Pagcor's inability to collect P2.2B from POGO licensee

Published Aug 15, 2023 07:15 am

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, August 15 scored the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) over its failure to collect P2.2-billion worth of unpaid dues that a certain Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) firm owes the government. 

 

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Sen. Risa Hontiveros (Senate PRIB Photo)

 

Even more alarming, Hontiveros noted, is the state gaming regulator’s reluctance to go after the company. 

 

“Wala na talagang redeeming qualities itong mga POGO. Pati perang makukolekta para sa bayan, naging bato na (These POGOs really do not have any redeeming quality. Even money that should have been for the nation, got lost),” Hontiveros said.

 

“It is unacceptable that Pagcor cannot retrieve the P2.2-billion unpaid dues that a POGO firm owes our government. It’s even more alarming that Pagcor seems resigned to not go after this company,” she lamented. 

 

“Ganun-ganun na lang ba nila kakalimutan ang P2.2B? Hindi yan maliit na halaga, lalo na para sa ating gobyerno sa panahon ngayon (Can you just forego a collection worth P2.2-billion? That’s not a small amount these days especially for the government),” she pointed out. 

 

During the House Committee on Appropriations hearing on the proposed 2024 national budget, Pagcor Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Al Tengco admitted to lawmakers that the amount indicated by the Commission on Audit (COA) as receivables from a POGO licensee could no longer be retrieved as they already “disappeared like bubbles.”

 

“They closed shop and ran away,” Tengco said during the hearing. 

 

Tengco said that during his term, they immediately went out and looked for the officers of that licensee but “it seems they have all closed shop and fled” during the pandemic. 

 

According to Tengco, the particular POGO licensee had no local incorporators that they could go after, so he requested COA to have the receivable “stricken off” because nothing can be done to go after the company. 

 

But he assured that the operator’s license has been canceled and a lookout order has been issued. 

 

Hontiveros, however, pointed out Pagcor had the responsibility to guard the online gambling industry, but it has been remiss in policing POGOs’ nefarious activities in the country. 

 

“I-blacklist na dapat ang POGO na yan, kasama ng mga taong may pakana (That POGO licensee should be blacklisted, including the people behind it),” the senator said. 

 

“Dapat rin, yung mga opisyales sa Pagcor managot sa mistulang kibit-balikat sa halagang P2.2B. Huwag na nilang dagdagan ang mga kasalanan nila sa bayan dahil sa pagpapaunlak nila sa mga POGO na yan (Pagcor officials should also be held accountable for just shrugging off P2.2-billion. They should not add to their sins in the country because they accommodated those POGOs),” she pointed out.

 

Hontiveros said she will further grill the state gaming regulatory agency in the next hearing of the Senate women and children’s committee about this issue. 

 

“Pinagyayabang nila ang revenue collections pero tila di naman nila nakokolekta talaga (They brag about their revenue collections but it seems they hardly really collect),” she pointed out. 

 

Related Tags

POGOs Risa Hontiveros PAGCOR
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