PAGCOR provides relief worth PHP3.46m to help victims of a tropical storm

PAGCOR has provided 6,000 food packs and non-food items to the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela.

The Philippines.- PAGCOR has provided 6,000 food packs and other items worth PHP3.46m to the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela to help after the impact of a severe tropical storm. Isabela PSWDO officer Lucila Ambatali said more than 6,700 people in 43 barangays had been affected by tropical storm Florita in northern Luzon.

Bonifacio Cuarteros, Cagayan chief of the Center Management Division and focal person at the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) said the province had lost about PHP344m worth of agricultural products due to the storm.

The provisions come as debate continues over the possible privatisation of PAGCOR’s gaming operations,

PAGOR recently funded the construction of a state-of-the-art Multi-Purpose Evacuation Centre (MPEC) in Barangay 2 Poblacion, Eastern Visayas. PHP3.5bn has been allocated by PAGCOR for the construction of MPECs in 77 locations nationwide. PHPP2.099bn of this amount has already been released to local government units. 

To date, a total of 15 evacuation facilities were completed in various parts of the country including those in the provinces of Pangasinan, Aurora, Pampanga, Tarlac, Quezon, Albay, Camarines Sur, and Capiz.

Deputy speaker opposes call to privatise PAGCOR’s gaming operations

Rufus Rodriguez, a member of the House of Representatives for the second district of Cagayan de Oro City, has suggested PAGCOR should drop its regulatory functions, not its operation of gaming.

His response comes after Alejandro H. Tengco, PAGCOR’s chairman, said that PAGCOR was analysing the possibility of privatising its gaming operations. According to Asian Gaming Brief, Rodriguez said: “I am strongly against privatizing it. So why kill, or more appropriately, why sell the goose that lays the golden eggs?”

According to Rodriguez, PAGCOR earns “tens of billions of pesos” a year and is not suited for privatisation. Instead, he suggested the government should create a new Casino Gaming Regulatory Authority so that PAGCOR could be relieved of its regulatory duties, thus resolving the issue of its potential conflict of interest.