{"id":777017687,"date":"2024-07-30T09:40:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T12:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777017687"},"modified":"2026-04-22T07:40:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:40:51","slug":"philippines-senator-files-measure-to-repeal-taxation-of-offshore-gaming-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-senator-files-measure-to-repeal-taxation-of-offshore-gaming-operators","title":{"rendered":"Philippines senator files measure to repeal taxation of offshore gaming operators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senator Joel Villanueva’s measure would repeal Republic Act 11590.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Senator Joel Villanueva<\/strong> has introduced a proposal to repeal Republic Act 11590, which introduced the taxation of offshore gaming operators. The move is intended to comply with president Ferdinand Marcos Jr.\u2019s decision to\u00a0ban offshore gambling operations<\/a>. The 2021 tax law amended the National Internal Revenue Code to impose additional taxes other than the franchise tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villanueva’s Senate Bill No. 2752<\/strong> seeks to permanently revoke offshore gaming licences, giving operators 30 days from implementation to halt their operations. Failure or refusal to cease operations would result in the responsible officers facing imprisonment of 12 to 20 years, a fine of PHP100m, or both. Foreign offenders would be deported after serving their sentence. The Bureau of Internal Revenue would have the authority to collect unpaid taxes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal also outlines a Workers’ Transition Program for affected Filipino workers to be executed by the Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and other relevant agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villanueva said: “The negative impact of criminal activities and societal problems arising from POGO operations far outweigh the benefits that Filipinos receive from the taxes they pay.” He then added authorities must make sure that there is no more trace of offshore gaming operators in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate speaker\u00a0Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez<\/strong>\u00a0had directed the House to develop and approve such legislation<\/a> last week. The aim is to implement the measure by December. Romualdez also ordered the continuation of the congressional investigation into criminal syndicates associated with gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR denies ordering immediate shutdown of offshore gaming operators<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has issued a statement saying that a memo that ordered local government units (LGUs) to terminate the operations of offshore gaming operators by August is fake. Attorney Jessa Mariz Fernandez, head of PAGCOR\u2019s offshore gaming licensing department, said the memo dated July 26 was a manipulated version of an earlier memorandum issued on July 23, the day after\u00a0a ban was announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the president\u2019s directive allows operations to continue until the end of the year and that the disinformation was an attempt \u201cto create chaos and confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Joel Villanueva’s measure would repeal Republic Act 11590.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21794,"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 Joel Villanueva has introduced Senate Bill No. 2752 to repeal Republic Act 11590, aiming to permanently ban offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in the Philippines by December, aligning with President Marcos Jr.'s directive. The bill proposes license revocation, severe penalties for non-compliance, and a worker transition program, while PAGCOR clarifies that existing operations may continue until year-end despite a fake immediate shutdown memo.","focusai_entities":"Joel Villanueva, Republic Act 11590, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Senate Bill No. 2752, National Internal Revenue Code, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Labor and Employment, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, PAGCOR, Jessa Mariz Fernandez","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Economic Impact","query":"What is the projected economic impact of a complete POGO ban on the Philippine economy, considering both tax revenue loss and potential gains from reduced social costs?"},{"label":"Regulatory Transition Plan","query":"What specific governance frameworks and enforcement mechanisms will PAGCOR and other agencies implement to ensure an orderly and compliant cessation of POGO operations by the December deadline?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777017687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017687","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=777017687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777017711,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017687\/revisions\/777017711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777017687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777017687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777017687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}