Ongpin donated 49 percent PhilWeb’s stake to Pagcor

Roberto V. Ongpin has cancelled the auction of his 53.76-percent stake in PhilWeb Corp. donating the bulk of it to state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

The Philippines.- Roberto V. Ongpin, cancelled the auction of his 53.76-percent stake in PhilWeb Corp., donating the bulk of it instead to state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor). This was the business man’s effort to save the gaming technology company from closure. Ongpin had initially decided to auction off his PhilWeb shares from August 10 to 17 in an attempt to secure a new Pagcor license for PhilWeb.

In a letter dated on August 17 to Pagcor Chairwoman Andrea Domingo, Ongpin said he has stopped the auction of his majority stake in PhilWeb, deciding instead to donate 49 percent out of his 53.76 percent shareholdings in PhilWeb to Pagcor.

“As of the deadline of 12 noon today (Wednesday), I have received five bids for my 53.76 percent stake (about 771 million shares) in PhilWeb,” reads the Ongpin’s letter. “However, due to the reports in the media that under no circumstances will the PhilWeb license be renewed, I have decided that it is not appropriate, nor fair to the bidders, for me to award my shares to any of the bidders. I hereby donate to Pagcor … 49 percent of my PhilWeb shares.”

“The balance of 4.7 percent, I hereby donate to the Ateneo de Manila University JVO Scholarship Fund (named after my late brother but funded by me), which supports several hundred public elementary school graduates who could not otherwise afford to go to Ateneo,” added Ongpin.

Ongpin explained that this decision was an attempt to let Pagcor, as regulator and operator of several casinos in the Philippines, own a majority of PhilWeb to save the jobs and livelihood of 700 PhilWeb employees and 5,000 others employed by Pagcor to operate 286 “e-Games” outlets. Only a few weeks ago, the anti-oligarch and anti-online gaming and gambling rhetoric of President Rodrigo Duterte prompted Ongpin to resign as PhilWeb chairman and sell his shares in the company.