MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation will no longer be able to retrieve more than P2 billion in receivables owed by a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations firm to the government, the PAGCOR chief said on Monday.
PAGCOR chief Alejandro Tengco said during the House appropriations committee’s budget deliberations that the POGO firm has since “closed shop” with its officers already outside the Philippines.
Tengco was referring to the Commission on Audit’s finding in 2022 that the state-run gaming regulator has yet to collect at least P2.3 billion in receivables from offshore gaming operations.
“The said amount during the past administration was not collected. This was a P2.2B receivable from a POGO that was licensed during the last administration and during the pandemic eh nawala nalang na parang bula yung POGO (the POGO suddenly disappeared). They closed shop and ran away,” Tengco said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Tengco said that he told state auditors in an exit conference a month ago that there is “no way” PAGCOR can collect the amount as all of the officers of the POGO licensee have since left the country.
There are also no local incorporators in the licensee, which only operated for eight months, Tengco said.
“In fact during the last exit conference, I requested COA to strike off the receivable because there is nothing left to do, we can no longer go after them,” the PAGCOR chief added.
Tengco added that while the officials have been blacklisted and their license canceled, the individuals are reportedly foreign nationals who are out of the country already.
In a move to tighten regulations on POGO firms, PAGCOR placed all POGO licensees and service providers under a probationary status and required all of them to reapply for new licenses in a new regulatory framework on August 1.
“We are requiring all active licensees to reapply until September 15. If they don't reapply by then we will cancel their existing license,” Tengco said.
“After this and if we see that nothing has really changed, we will be the one to prepare our recommendations on where this industry should go,” he added.
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Tengco said PAGCOR has also increased its monitoring and collection efforts, with around $1.5 million collected in fines and penalties in the first six months of 2023.
“We are trying our best to make sure that all our licensees will follow the rules and regulations of PAGCOR on overseas licensees,” he added.
POGO firms have been repeatedly accused of engaging in human trafficking and exploitative treatment of workers, most of whom are foreign nationals.
According to a Senate hearing in January, the police recorded four times more POGO-related crimes in 2022 compared to before the pandemic or 2019.
No more e-sabong
PAGCOR chief also clarified during the hearing that all e-sabong operations have been declared illegal after a directive from former President Rodrigo Duterte on May 4, 2022.
“There are no longer any legal and licensed e-sabong operations in the Philippines. So we’re no longer deriving any revenue from that,” Tengco added.
The state-run gaming operator collected some P400 million to P500 million in revenue prior from e-sabong operations before it was outlawed, he said.
New logo meant to counter unauthorized transactions
Tengco also defended PAGCOR's procurement of its new logo, saying that it had undergone all the right bidding processes.
He added that he personally requested a review of the procurement process following backlash that hounded PAGCOR's unveiling of its new logo.
During the hearing, Tengco said PAGCOR's efforts to rebrand, including the logo change, were meant to counter the thousands of bogus operators or licensees using PAGCOR’s identity.
"We decided to change the logo immediately to be able to counter such," the PAGCOR chief said.