Benjamin Diokno: PAGCOR should “stick to its regulatory role”

The Philippines’ finance secretary continues to criticise PAGCOR’s dual commercial and regulatory functions.

The Philippines.– The Philippine finance secretary Benjamin E. Diokno has again criticised PAGCOR’s dual role as operator and regulator, saying that it should be a regulator only. PAGCOR regulates, authorises and licenses gaming in the Philippines but it also operates over 40 casinos itself.

Diokno said: “PAGCOR is a regulator but at the same time it operates gambling companies. That’s wrong. If you’re a regulator, stick to that. You cannot run gambling casinos. It’s like saying that you have a central bank and yet you’re also running a bank. That cannot work.”

He made the remarks after the announcement of a proposal to establish a new sovereign wealth fund. The idea is that 10 per cent of PAGCOR’s gross gaming revenue be invested in the Maharlika Wealth Fund, along with investments from government financial institutions and the central bank.

Diokno had suggested in August that PAGCOR’s new leadership “should resolve the seemingly conflicting roles as an operator and regulator.”

The Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) is in the process of evaluating the decoupling of the functions of the regulator. Former finance chief Carlos Dominguez previously raised the idea of privatising PAGCOR’s gaming operations but the Duterte administration didn’t go ahead with the proposal.

PAGCOR reported net income of PHP2.16bn (US$38.8m) for the first half of the year, up 2,600 per cent when compared to last year.