PAGCOR driving upside surprise in GOCC dividends, Recto says

GOVERNMENT-OWNED or -controlled corporations’ (GOCCs) dividends will be stronger than expected this year, with the gaming industry regulator largely responsible for the upside, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said.

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“PIGO (Philippine Inland Gaming Operations) led to an increase in dividends from PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.), which we did not expect,” he told reporters recently.

Mr. Recto has said that GOCC dividends overall will exceed the target by “P90 billion to P110 billion.”

The Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing report had assumed that state-run firms will remit only P20 billion this year.

Asked to clarify whether Mr. Recto meant the final dividend tally would be P110-P130 billion, Undersecretary Ma. Luwalhati C. Dorotan-Tiuseco provided confirmation.

The Department of Finance (DoF) reported on Tuesday that GOCCs had remitted P105 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury as of July, indicating that dividends are currently approaching the low end of the projected range.

The top source of dividends was the Land Bank of the Philippines, which had remitted P26 billion.