Three groups have issued a joint statement giving their support to calls to ban POGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- The bill to ban POGOs<\/a> introduced by Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva in September continues to gain support. Three business associations, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF)<\/strong>, the Makati Business Club (MBC)<\/strong>, and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) have released a joint statement in favour of a ban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They say POGOs have a high social cost and damage the country’s reputation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The statement reads: “The social and reputational costs of government sponsorship of operations that are globally frowned upon far outweigh any economic benefits. Conflicting mandates and the lure of corruption have rendered it and other involved government agencies incapable of effectively regulating POGOs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benjamin Diokno<\/strong>, secretary of finance in The Philippines, has also suggested that the country should abolish POGOs<\/a>. There have been suggestions that a ban would hurt the Philippines economically. Between January to August, POGOs generated PHP4.438bn (US$75m)<\/a> in tax revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the business groups said: \u201cThe total ban will only result in temporary economic stains, as opposed to the enduring socio-economic consequences and heavier disruption if we do not act now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah Lynne Ducanes<\/strong>, assistant secretary for the Policy and Planning Group at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) told a Senate committee that a ban could eventually benefit the country\u2019s tourism sector<\/strong>. She believes POGOs are affecting the Philippines\u2019 reputation <\/strong>among potential investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to preliminary NEDA estimates, POGOs generate a net cost<\/strong> to the country\u2019s tourism industry, particularly Chinese tourism. Ducanes acknowledged that banning POGOs would result in some losses, such as office rental income. But she said a rebound in tourism could eventually offset the losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three groups have issued a joint statement giving their support to calls to ban POGOs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":10356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Three prominent business associations in the Philippines, alongside the Secretary of Finance, have issued a joint statement supporting a ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), citing significant social costs and reputational damage despite tax revenues. The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) further suggests that a ban could ultimately benefit the country's tourism sector and attract foreign investment, offsetting short-term economic losses. This move underscores a growing consensus among key stakeholders regarding the long-term socio-economic implications of POGO operations.","focusai_entities":"Joel Villanueva, Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), Makati Business Club (MBC), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), Benjamin Diokno, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Sarah Lynne Ducanes","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Economic Impact Analysis","query":"What specific economic models and data points underpin NEDA's projection that a tourism rebound would definitively offset the PHP4.438bn in POGO tax revenues and associated rental income losses?"},{"label":"Regulatory Efficacy Post-Ban","query":"Beyond a POGO ban, what concrete governance reforms and enforcement mechanisms are being proposed to address the \"conflicting mandates and lure of corruption\" that rendered previous POGO regulation ineffective?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,158,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-34769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34784,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34769\/revisions\/34784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NEDA: Banning POGOs could benefit the Philippines\u2019 tourism sector<\/h2>\n\n\n\n