Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Unlike his colleagues in the House of Representatives who are calling for an outright ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs), House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda is instead pushing for stricter enforcement of the industry's licensing regulations. 

In a statement, Salceda trumpeted the “unsung” efforts of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to improve law enforcement and revenue collection capabilities on POGOs, otherwise known as offshore gaming licensees (OGLs).

“As far as a supposed ‘phase-out’ is concerned, that’s the kind of phase-out I fully support: You phase out the bad and mediocre licensees. You don’t phase the whole industry out. You enforce the law,” the lawmaker said.

As chairman of the influential tax committee in the lower chamber that oversees revenue efforts of the government, Salceda said the leadership of Pagcor “changed the landscape” in making POGOs a “controlled but contributory” sector of the economy.

“Ever since the appointment of Chairman Al Tengco, and later on, by President and CEO Amy Eisma, Pagcor has been modernizing its policies and practices,” he noted.

Salceda pointed out that under Pagcor’s revised rules, revenue collections have significantly improved. 

At the same time, this also led to a reduction in the number of total licensees, he said.

“In other words, we’re choosier about who we license, and we also collect more from each licensee,” the economist-solon continued.

Citing data from the gaming licensing agency, Salceda said 2023 collections from POGOs improved to P5.1 billion from just 87 licensees. This is a huge contrast to the P2.99 billion from the year before, which came from 158 licensees.

With this, Pagcor collected about 71 percent more revenues for 2023 with 45 percent fewer licensees.

The Bicol congressman also noted that unlike the peak of POGOs in 2019, which have as many as 200,000 Chinese workers directly or indirectly hired.

The legitimately licensed POGOs today, which are now labeled as internet gaming licensees (IGLs), employ about 65,000 Filipinos in an estimated 100,000 total direct or indirect hires.

Vietnamese hires are about 11,000 which now outnumber Chinese hires, he said.

Furthermore, Salceda also highlighted the role Pagcor played in apprehending allegedly illegal POGOs in Bamban, Tarlac.

“No one talks about it too much, but I think it deserves to be said: It was Pagcor who made the first move to catch the illegal operations,” he said.

According to him, the agency is among the best performers in the government’s corporate sector.

“The Pagcor leadership has been very media-shy. But I will sing their unsung but deserved praises anyway: Pagcor has been enforcing rules on POGOs better, and they are turning the sector into an industry that creates more jobs for Filipinos and no longer relies exclusively on Chinese demand or labor,” he emphasized.