The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) last year reinforced its role as an active partner of the government in nation-building by channeling P21.20 billion of its revenues to the national coffers and other relevant socio-civic and community development projects.

PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Cristino Naguiat, Jr. reported that the agency’s total contributions to nation-building was more than half of its P40.52 billion gross income in 2013. “Our contributions last year was higher by nearly P242 million compared to the P20.96 billion we gave to the government and other recipients in 2012. This is the highest recorded remittance of PAGCOR to nation-building in the past 28 years of its existence,” Naguiat noted.

The PAGCOR Chief added that the corporation was able to increase its contributions to the government by spending its resources wisely. “We were able to reduce our actual operating expenses (OPEX) by almost P1 billion in 2013 compared to the previous year. By constantly scrutinizing our expenses, we were able to contribute more to nation-building last year despite the stiff competition in the gaming industry,” Naguiat stressed.

The biggest chunk of PAGCOR's 2013 contributions to nation-building went to the National Treasury (P13.10 billion) representing 50% of the mandated government share from the agency's revenues. The amount was higher by P49.65 million compared to the 2012 government share of P13.052 billion.

Apart from this, PAGCOR also remitted P5.98 billion to its various mandated recipients in 2013, an increase of P330 million compared to that in 2012.

Also part of PAGCOR’s contributions to nation-building was the P2.33 billion it gave as direct assistance to socio-civic projects, the bulk of which went to the “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid-Aralan” program of the corporation.

According to Naguiat, foremost among the state-owned gaming firm's advocacies is to help the Department of Education (DepEd) build more decent learning facilities for the Filipino youth. “To date, we have already allocated P5 billion for the construction of school buildings nationwide. Of this amount, we allocated P2 billion solely for the reconstruction of damaged school buildings in the Visayas which were severely ravaged by typhoon Yolanda,” Naguiat added.

The prudent use of funds also enabled PAGCOR to generate a hefty net income of P3.09 billion in 2013. “This surpassed our 2013 net income target by P141 million (4.79%). It is also much bigger by P293 million (10.48%) versus our P2.8 billion net income in 2012,” Naguiat said.

PAGCOR will also be remitting cash dividends to the government. It will be recalled that in 2012, PAGCOR turned over P1 billion in cash dividends to the National Treasury. “In 2013, we remitted P1.4 billion and that will increase to P1.5 billion this year,” the PAGCOR Chief said.

Naguiat also reported that of the corporation’s P40.52 billion revenues in 2013, P27.58 billion was generated from its gaming operations. Meanwhile, P11.92 billion was sourced from PAGCOR’s other related services such as license fees collected from its franchisees. The agency also earned P1.01 billion from other sources such as entertainment income, hotel operations, interests, foreign exchange, among others.

“We hope to continue PAGCOR’s good performance in 2014. We know that it will not be easy because competition is getting stiffer. But just like what I keep telling our employees, we always have to do our best so we can reap the fruits of our labor,” Naguiat concluded.

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