The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) exercised prudent management of its funds beginning July 1, 2010 under the new leadership of Chairman and CEO Cristino Naguiat, Jr. which resulted in total savings of P945 million for the agency.

“This is in stark contrast to the performance of the state-gaming firm during the first six months of 2010 under its previous management where PAGCOR spent over P18 million more than its allocated budget for the period,” PAGCOR’s Assistant Vice President for Corporate Communications Maricar Bautista said.

Apart from generating substantial savings, the state-gaming agency also posted gross revenues of P31.46 billion in 2010 which was P1.15 billion higher compared to its P30.31 billion gross income in 2009.

Almost 70 percent or P21.87 billion of last year’s revenues was derived from the winnings of PAGCOR’s casino operations nationwide. The remaining 30.54 percent or P9.59 billion came from other related businesses and other income.

According to Bautista, PAGCOR’s earnings during the first six months of its new administration (July 1 to December 31, 2010) was better by 2.43% or P378 million when compared to the 2010 first semester performance of the corporation.

“With the new PAGCOR management’s thrust towards judicious spending, the agency’s operating expenses was also much lower by 10% or P740 million in the second semester of 2010 than that of the first semester,” Bautista added.

In 2010, PAGCOR remained one of the biggest revenue sources of the Philippine government. It remitted a total of P14.71 billion to its mandated beneficiaries.

Mandated contributions of the agency to the national government, which has 50 percent share in PAGCOR’s gaming revenues, reached P10.39 billion. On the other hand, P1.09 billion was remitted to the BIR in the form of franchise tax, while over P519 million was forwarded to the PSC to sustain the government’s sports development initiatives. All these remittances were higher by 1.06% during the second semester of 2010 compared to the contributions made by PAGCOR in the first semester of last year.

According to Bautista, PAGCOR’s provision for other mandated beneficiaries, such as the Board of Claims (BOC) also increased by 421.76 percent. “From P5.33 million remittance in 2009, the total remittance to BOC in 2010 amounted to P27.81 million,” she said. The BOC is an agency under the Department of Justice that evaluates and conducts independent hearing for victims of violence and unjust imprisonment.

PAGCOR’s other beneficiaries in 2010 include the President’s Social Fund (P1.61 billion) which sustains the President’s socio-civic projects; the Financial assistance to socio-civic and charitable projects (P163.13 million); Early Childhood Care and Development (P152.41 million); National Sports Development (P15 million); National Book Development Trust Fund (P50 million); Programang Gulayan para sa Masa Project (P1.76 million) and share to Local Government Units / Host Cities where PAGCOR casinos operate (P507.72).

According to Bautista, the new PAGCOR management had to set aside a sizeable portion of the gaming firm’s second semester income for important purposes. “The management prioritized funding allocations for payments to the Philippine Reclamation Authority for the parcels of land already acquired by PAGCOR (during the term of the previous PAGCOR management) for the Entertainment City Project without necessitating loans,” she said.

“In 2009, there was a need to avail of domestic borrowings of P1 billion for the amortizations of these properties. As of the second semester of 2010, we were able to pay off P841 million solely from internal funding. On top of this, we were able to pay off about P419 million in accelerated payments for the outstanding bank loans of the previous administration. With this, PAGCOR was able to save almost P40 million in interest expenses that we would have shouldered until the full payment of the amount,” Bautista noted.

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