THE government would recover lost revenues from the termination of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) operations through other foreign investments, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said yesterday as it backed a Senate committee proposal to ban offshore gaming activities in the country.
NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan echoed the position of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means that revenues generated from POGOs are not enough to compensate for the industry’s high social cost.
“I think that what we want to encourage are very legitimate, you know, that’s legitimate investments, good investments. In the sense, good quality investments and investments that will produce goods and services and not ones that promote negative externalities to society such as those alleged crimes or related issues,” Balisacan said in a briefing after the Cabinet sectoral meeting in Malacañang.
“We have been moving around in many countries, cities, attracting investment to the country, marketing our country as a good place to do business. We are not going around to attract business of this kind. We want investment inflows that will promote not only the economic but also the social aspects of our development,” he added.
Asked if future investments in the country would be enough to replace revenues lost from POGOs, Balisacan said other countries like Thailand and Indonesia do not depend on POGO and similar businesses.
He clarified, though, that this is his and NEDA’s position since the POGO issue has not been discussed with President Marcos Jr. yet.
President Marcos Jr. has previously said that there should be a “good reason” to ban POGOs in the country.
He has said that if POGO operatives have a social cost, then “it might not be worth it. The cost might not be worth what they’re paying in taxes anymore.”
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno has also previously said that he is in favor of stopping the operations of POGOs, citing what he called their “social and reputational risks.”
The Senate Committee on Ways and Means earlier this week recommended the gradual phase-out and eventual termination of POGO operations nationwide, citing the industry’s negative social impact in communities where they are located.
The committee has urged the Senate to adopt a resolution urging the Executive department to stop POGO operations to safeguard the well-being of Filipinos and maintain a trajectory of growth and development in line with the administration’s economic reforms.
In pushing for the closure of the POGO industry, the committee noted that POGO-related crimes, such as kidnapping, serious illegal detention, human trafficking, money laundering, forcible abductions, homicide, theft, robbery extortion, serious physical injuries, swindling, grave coercion, and converting POGO firms to scam hubs, among others, have adversely affected the country’s peace and order situation, and economic stability.
Records from the Philippine National Police (PNP) submitted to the committee showed that POGO-related crimes have reached 4,355 involving 903 perpetrators from January 2017 to June this year alone.
The operation of POGOs were authorized during the previous Duterte administration, which cited projected income from their operations. But records from the Bureau of Internal Revenues showed that the government did not get the expected profits from the industry, since the industry’s share to the total BIR collections was pegged at only 0.23 percent in 2019, 0.29 percent in 2020, 0.14 percent in 2021, and 0.21 percent from January to September 2022.
Revenues collected from POGOs totaled about P7.2 billion in 2020, but the figure decreased to P3.9 billion the following year.
