Recurring payments from the sale of Nonoc Mining and Industrial Corp.’s assets injected more than half a billion pesos into the national coffers, pushing the government’s privatization income above ₱6 billion in the first 10 months of the year.

The Nonoc Mining revenues are a “recurring payment for previous disposition,” Department of Finance (DOF) Assistant Secretary Michael Peter A. Alejandro told the Manila Bulletin on Thursday, Nov. 27.

Payments for Nonoc Mining assets surged 152.4 percent to ₱737 million as of end-October, from ₱292 million in the same period last year. A bulk of these payments—₱583 million—was remitted last month.

Alejandro said the payment process from the mining corporation is lengthy, and additional revenues from Nonoc Mining are expected to further boost the national treasury.

The finance official maintained the government has already reached its ₱5-billion privatization target for the year, noting that the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) collected “more than ₱6 billion as of end-October.

Alejandro explained that the government’s privatization efforts include the ₱4.4-billion collection from MPCALA Holdings Inc. in August.

MPCALA Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of the Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), operates the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX).

Concession fees from CALAX accounted for a third of the total concession fees the private firm owes the government.

Finance Undersecretary Catherine L. Fong earlier said the remaining ₱12.6 billion in concession fees will be deferred to next year due to counterclaims that need to be settled between the government and the private firm.

Meanwhile, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that privatization income plunged 40.1 percent to ₱2 billion in the first 10 months, from ₱3.3 billion in the same period last year. Total privatization income in October accounted for nearly a third of the year-to-date figure in the BTr data.

Alejandro addressed the discrepancy, suggesting that concession fees from CALAX might have been accounted for differently, but stressed that “public-private partnership (PPP) revenues are included” in the privatization goal.

Fong earlier clarified that the partial remittance from MPCALA Holdings Inc. was booked as concession fees, not as “privatization.”

National Treasurer Sharon P. Almanza also stated that the remittance formed part of the government’s other non-tax revenues.

To match the 2024 full-year privatization collection of ₱3.3 billion (as reported by BTr), the government must secure an additional ₱1.3 billion before the year ends.

Under the national government’s quarterly fiscal program, which the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) approved in June, ₱4.2 billion in privatization remittances—the bulk of the full-year goal—was expected in the fourth quarter.

The original target for the privatization of idle government assets under this year’s revenue program was ₱101 billion, which was later slashed to ₱50 billion in April and further reduced to just ₱5 billion in June.

For 2026, the DOF is targeting to raise ₱193.7 billion from the privatization of big-ticket idle government assets.