{"id":777001698,"date":"2023-01-24T13:19:39","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T16:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777001698"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:16:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:16:43","slug":"senator-criticises-pogo-auditor-hired-by-pagcor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/senator-criticises-pogo-auditor-hired-by-pagcor","title":{"rendered":"Senator criticises POGO auditor hired by PAGCOR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian says the third-party auditor does not have a business permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Senator Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong> has criticised the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation’s (PAGCOR) choice of auditor to probe the earnings of  Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs)<\/strong>. He says Global ComRCI has inconsistencies in its documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gatchalian said his research team has found that Global ComRCI hired an unregistered bank to prove it had the required PHP1.3bn (US$25m) in funds to meet PAGCOR’s tender requirements. It also found that Global ComRCI was not registered in Makati City despite having a business address in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roderick Consolacion, PAGCOR’s vice president of legal affairs, said the bidding rules allowed this without elaborating further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gatchalian<\/strong> has previously accused the regulator of having little knowledge of POGO’s businesses<\/a>. Speaking in favour of banning POGOs, he has said that they contribute PHP34.68bn<\/strong> a year to the country \u2013 1 per cent of GDP \u2013 and that losing this could be mitigated by attracting BPO companies, which could take up office space left by gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, senators are considering the possibility of making changes to the PAGCOR statute to separate its dual functions<\/a> by privatising its gaming operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian says the third-party auditor does not have a business permit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has raised significant concerns regarding the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation's (PAGCOR) selection of Global ComRCI as the third-party auditor for Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), citing inconsistencies in its documentation and the use of an unregistered bank. This scrutiny highlights potential governance and regulatory compliance issues within the POGO oversight framework. Concurrently, discussions are underway to potentially privatize PAGCOR's gaming operations, signaling a broader re-evaluation of the regulatory body's dual functions.","focusai_entities":"Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, PAGCOR, Global ComRCI, Philippine offshore gaming operators, POGOs, Roderick Consolacion","focusai_location":"Philippines, Makati City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Auditor Legal Ramifications?","query":"What are the specific legal ramifications for PAGCOR and Global ComRCI given the alleged inconsistencies in documentation and the use of an unregistered bank, particularly concerning regulatory compliance and governance frameworks?"},{"label":"PAGCOR Privatization Impact?","query":"How would the proposed privatization of PAGCOR's gaming operations impact the regulatory landscape, B2B\/B2C licensing frameworks, and the overall market stability for iGaming operators and suppliers in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[405,15789],"class_list":["post-777001698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001698","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=777001698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001710,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001698\/revisions\/777001710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777001698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}