Tue | 04.14.2020 | 11:30 AM

PAGCOR's Senior Finance Officer for Fund Management Sabrina P. Lopez (left) hands over the check worth P6 billion to Office of the President's Deputy Executive Secretary for Finance and Administration Rizalina N. Justol. The check represents PAGCOR's additional remittance to the Office of the President's Socio-Civic Projects Fund.

After recently remitting a total of P20.5 billion to government coffers in response to the country’s fight against the Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) released on April 13 an additional P6 billion to the Socio-Civic Funds Project (SCFP) of the Office of the President (OP).

With this recent remittance, PAGCOR’s total contribution to the OP alone now stands at P14.5 billion.

On March 24, PAGCOR turned over P6 billion to OP, in addition to the P2 billion and P500 million remittances that were released on March 11 and March 1, respectively. These were on top of the P12 billion cash dividends that PAGCOR remitted to the National Treasury on March 23, 2020.

According to PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo, PAGCOR’s remittances to OP are intended for various funding requirements relative to Proclamation No. 922 “Declaring a State of Public Health Emergency throughout the entire Philippines” and the subsequent declaration of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon, which was extended until April 30, 2020.

“The recent remittance to OP is pursuant to PAGCOR's mandate to allocate its earnings to finance infrastructure and socio-civic projects,” Domingo explained.

“Despite experiencing losses due to the suspension of operations of our owned and licensed gaming facilities for almost a month now, we are doing our best to provide much-needed help to the government during this time of crisis,” Domingo said.

Apart from its remittances to the national government, PAGCOR, as well as its licensees, have also been donating food packs, personal protective equipment and other medical essentials to frontliners, hospitals and communities in the National Capital Region and some parts of Luzon. The charitable arms of Entertainment City casino licensees have likewise extended direct assistance such as Okada Manila Foundation's P25 million cash donation each to the Philippine Heart Center and Lung Center of the Philippines, and Bloomberry Cultural Foundation's retrofitting of Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Ninoy Aquino Stadium into temporary COVID hospitals.

On behalf of the OP, Deputy Executive Secretary for Finance and Admin Rizalina Justol commended PAGCOR for its unrelenting support to the government.

“Malaking tulong ang ibinibigay ng PAGCOR sa ating mga kababayan, lalo na sa mga local government units na talagang nangangailangan ng tulong ngayong panahon ng COVID. Thank you, PAGCOR for supporting our endeavor for the benefit of the Filipinos,” she said.

Go back