Study warns privatisation of PAGCOR’s Casino Filipino could reduce Philippine healthcare funding
A legal study has warned that the planned privatisation operations could reduce annual funding for the country’s Universal Health Care programme.
The Philippines.- A study by Philippine law firm Geronimo Law has sugested that the planned privatisation of PAGCOR’s Casino Filipino could create a recurring funding gap of between PHP1.7bn (US$29.6m) and PHP2.1bn (US$36.5m) per year for the country’s Universal Health Care (UHC) programme. The report comes as the government moves forward with plans to separate PAGCOR’s regulatory and commercial functions.
Under current legislation, half of PAGCOR’s remittances to the National Treasury are allocated to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to support universal healthcare. According to the study, Casino Filipino contributed PHP3.02bn (US$52.5m) in 2024 and PHP2.47bn (US$42.9m) in 2025. Once the casino business is privatised, those contributions would be replaced mainly by licence fee revenue, which the report says would be significantly lower.
PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco has estimated that selling around 40 Casino Filipino properties could generate between PHP30bn (US$521.7m) and PHP50bn (US$869.5m). However, Geronimo Law noted that those proceeds would go to the national government as dividends rather than to the UHC programme because the legal allocation only applies to gaming revenues, not asset sales.
While the study acknowledges that the reform would eliminate the conflict of interest created by PAGCOR acting as both regulator and casino operator, it argues that policymakers should identify alternative sources of funding for the country’s public healthcare system.
The Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG) is expected to submit its recommendation on PAGCOR’s restructuring to the Office of the President during the third quarter of 2026. If approved, an executive order could be issued by the end of the year, paving the way for the full separation of PAGCOR’s regulatory and casino operations by 2028.
