Privatize Pagcor right away

A few weeks ago, PAGCOR Chairman Al Tengco told me that BBM is determined to privatize PAGCOR and has already started the ball rolling to get this done.

- BOO CHANCO

But Al said that the PAGCOR Charter has to be amended by Congress to provide the legal basis for privatization.

I received an email from former Senator Frank Drilon to let me know that PAGCOR can be privatized right away without waiting for Congress to amend its Charter. "There is an existing law," Senator Drilon wrote, "which authorizes the President, through the Governance Commission for GOCCs, to privatize PAGCOR without going to Congress."

Senator Drilon explains: RA 10149, or the "GOCC Governance Act of 2011," empowers the Governance Commission for GOCCs to "review the function of each GOCC and, upon a determination that there is a conflict between the regulatory and commercial functions of a GOCC, recommend to the President the privatization of the GOCC's commercial operations...."

"I personally authored and sponsored RA 10149, and the above quoted Section 5(L) of the law, delegated to the President the power to amend the PAGCOR Charter without going through Congress (N.B. Sen Ping Lacson probably didn't know when he filed SB 1471 on May 24, 2017, that RA 10149 was already effective since it was signed into law June 6, 2011)."

This is good news because waiting for Congress will cause undue delay and offer opportunities for vested interest groups to short-circuit the privatization plan and make it less effective than contemplated. This will test the sincerity of Chairman Tengco beyond mere press releases.

In my previous conversation with Tengco, he said that selling all the 43 Casino Filipino or the PAGCOR-managed casinos will bring as much as P80 billion upfront. Based on a separate estimate of Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, privatization will generate proceeds of P120 billion to P128 billion.