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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOJ shares list of officials, personnel to PAGCOR to enhance ban of gov't personnel from casinos

DOJ shares list of officials, personnel to PAGCOR to enhance ban of gov't personnel from casinos

Published Mar 30, 2026 01:41 pm
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and its agencies agreed to provide the names of their more than 56,000 personnel to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to enhance the ban against people in government from entering and playing in the casinos.
During the signing of the memorandum of agreement on Monday, March 30, at the DOJ, PAGCOR Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alejandro H. Tengco said that in 2025, his office voided more than P310 million in casino winnings after these were found to be claimed by people in government.
DOJ Secretary Fredderick A. Vida said the ban is mandated under Presidential Decree No. 1869, the PAGCOR law, and Memorandum Circular No. 6, series of 2016 “which mandate that people in government are not allowed in casinos.”
Vida said that those caught violating the law and the circular will be dismissed outright on top of the filing of criminal, civil, and administrative charges.
Under the MOA, the DOJ and its attached agencies will share the profiles of their officials and employees to the PAGCOR.
“We are here as public servants. We need not only to do good to act as role models. We follow the rule of law,” Vida told journalists after the MOA signing.
The DOJ’s attached agencies are the Bureau of Corrections, the Bureau of Immigration, the National Bureau of Investigation, Parole and Probation Administration, the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the Public Attorney’s Office, the Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, Office of the Solicitor General, and the Land Registration Authority.
Vida said: “Basically ang i-share lang naman namin would be the names, the titles and the pictures kasi they have enough facial recognition system to know kung government official s’ya (we will be sharing the names, titles and the pictures of our officials and employees since the PAGCOR has facial recognition system that will determine if the person is from government).”
Tengco lauded the DOJ for approaching the PAGCOR and pushing for the MOA.
“Truly we are thankful for the fact that the Department of Justice has decided to step up and share the list of all its employees which we will in turn include in our national database for restricted persons or NDRP,” Tengco also said.
He added that the DOJ is the first government agency that provided the list and profiles of personnel.
He lamented that while the government has about 4.5 million officials and employees, excluding elected officials, PAGCOR has only about 600,000 government personnel in its NDRP.
He lamented: “All the different departments and agencies of government are always invoking the Data Privacy Act which we all respect and we all need to follow. Unfortunately, on the side of PAGCOR, hindi po kami nagkakaroon ng pagkakataon mapalaganap at mapalaki ang database (we have no chance to expand our data base).”
He then assured the DOJ: “We will make sure that this information will be kept properly and whatever names included there are protected.”
At the same time, Tengco said that at least two other government agencies, one of them the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), have already approached the PAGCOR for the possibility of agreeing to a similar agreement on the sharing of information of their officials and employees.

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