THE Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) on Monday said Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) will not be allowed to operate unless it has paid the required regulatory fees and can submit a clearance from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) attesting that it has no unpaid obligations.
Speaking at the Laging Handa public briefing, PAGCOR assistant vice president for communications Arnie Salvosa and offshore gaming officer Diane Erica Jogno said the gaming agency will strictly vet the papers of all POGOs seeking for permit to resume partial operations.
“They must present a certificate of registration with the BIR and a document attesting that they no longer have liabilities with it as of March 2020. We will be very strict with these requirements. They first have to settle any unpaid taxes with the BIR,” Jogno said.
Likewise, the POGO licensees and their service providers have to update their regulatory fees and pay the minimum guarantee fee for the month of April whether or not they had operations for the month.
Jogno said PAGCOR was able to obtain approval for the partial operations of POGOs by citing that a component of its operation involves business processing outsourcing (BPO).
“We have to understand that POGO has three components — the players and the operators which are situated out of our country, and the support services which is the one with the physical presence locally. They provide customer service and business development functions among others. These are subcontracted services which make them BPOs,” she added.
For his part, Salvosa said the operation of POGOs will provide funding support for COVID-19 response programs of the government.
“Congress allotted P1.5 trillion to fund our COVID-19 response but the budget must have a corresponding revenue source like collections of taxes, fees and licenses. We have shown that POGOs are a reliable source of revenue for the government,” he pointed out.
He said in 2019, the country’s treasury earned P11 billion from POGO operations consisting of license fees to PAGCOR and P6 billion paid as taxes to the BIR.
On concerns regarding the enforcement of health protocols, Salvosa gave assurances that guidelines approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will be strictly observed, including testing systems for workers before they are allowed to report for work.
He clarified that only 30 percent of the total POGO manpower will be allowed in the work site while the rest will be working from home.
Shuttles would also be required to ferry workers from their accommodations to the workplace and back.
In a statement, PAGCOR chairman and chief executive officer Andrea Domingo said the agency will impose safety protocols on POGOs to help ensure that their employees will be protected from COVID-19 infections, and that spread of the virus in their communities will be avoided.
Domingo said employees who are confirmed COVID-19 cases, suspect or probable cases will not be allowed to work. Vulnerable groups, including the sick, immuno-compromised, seniors, pregnant women, and those with co-morbidities will likewise not be deployed.
She said those who will report back to work, whether Filipinos or foreign nationals, must obtain a negative test result from a testing facility duly registered with the Food and Drugs Administration.
“Even with the partial resumption of POGO operations, we will put premium on the safety of their employees, and the gaming industry as a whole. While we recognize their huge contributions to nation-building, and their great viability as a funding source in these difficult times, we still have to practice extra precaution in striking a balance between health and economic benefits,” Domingo said.
NOT BPOs
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said PAGCOR should stop projecting the income from POGOs as “succor” to the country’s funding woes in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barbers said that despite PAGCOR’s estimate of an annual income of more than P25 billion, licensed POGO firms delivered only P200 million to the government and left over P50 billion in unpaid fees and taxes for 2019.
“We all now know that POGOs projected multi-billion-peso income are just prophesies. What is real is that they have more than P50 billion unpaid taxes and there’s not much government effort to collect them,” he said.
Barbers said even PAGCOR has reported that POGOs contributed only P150 million to the government in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If this is so, we might just as well put a stop to all these POGO operations,” said the lawmaker, chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs.
He added he and many colleagues in Congress are “stranger” to the PAGCOR claim that POGOs are part of the BPO industry, which he said seemed to be the basis for the IATF-EID decision to allow the operations of the Chinese-manned online gaming firms.
He said the IATF approved the PAGCOR’s request despite its policy under Resolution 30 that disallows sectors that are engaged in “gambling and betting activities.”
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of the House ways and means committee, urged PAGCOR to push through with its plan to require POGO employees to obtain Gaming Employment License (GEL) IDs which would allow the government to track which POGOs are legitimate and are thus capable of paying proper taxes.
The proposal of issuing GEL IDs came about last year following the foreigners’ involvement in various crimes such as kidnapping.
Salceda said the GEL ID must contain the worker’s taxpayer identification number (TIN) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) work permit number, among other key details.
In a privilege speech, minority leader Benny Abante slammed the government’s decision to allow POGOs to continue its operations while people are barred from going to Churches because of the need for social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abante, a pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Ekklesia, said that while China bans POGOs, the Duterte government has welcomed its gambling activities in the country with open arms.
“It’s saddening that while Filipinos are a religious people, in a country which is called the only Christian country in the Far East, we’ve done worse than a communist country that does not believe in God,” he said.
He said it is high time to “declare this industry illegal in our country” because it encourages “a vice that is deplorable regardless of where it is practiced.” — With Wendell Vigilia
