SENATE committee investigations are often criticized by the public and even by President Duterte, pointing out the tendency of some senators to use the hearings as platforms for personal projection or “in aid of reelection.”
But every once in a while, the utility of these probes is made evident as senators question various agencies on their operational policies, most often leading to new discoveries of official corruption, government neglect and inadequacies.
This is what happened last Monday when Sen. Francis “Tol” Tolentino found out that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) have failed to withhold the 20 percent tax from the winning profits of online sabong operations since the virtual cockfighting industry began in the second quarter of 2020, unlike those being collected from other legal number games like sweepstakes, horse racing, and lotto.
‘The potential income of hundreds of millions of pesos from e-sabong is the prime reason Duterte wanted this gambling activity to stay, despite its negative effects on society.’
Tolentino called out the tax-collection agencies for this failure to withhold taxes from e-sabong winnings, noting that government revenues from online sabong operations come only from the regulatory fees being collected by PAGCOR from licensed operators every match, which is a measly P12,500 per match or sultada.
Under the National Internal Revenue Code, legal gambling entities are supposed to remit to the national government a big chunk of their earnings. At the continuation of the hearings of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs about the disappearances of 34 cockfighting aficionados, it was clear that the owners of e-sabong were willing to pay the correct taxes considering that they do not want the government to ban their “industry.”
So, the problem boils down to tax collection.
Gambling gambling Charlie ‘Atong’ Ang during the said Senate probe disclosed that his e-sabong firm, Pitmasters Live, has been remitting to PAGCOR P112.5 million worth of regulator fees every 30 days, despite admitting earlier that the said company earns roughly P3 billion monthly. There are at least seven companies involved in online sabong, ownership of which can be traced to incumbent and former congressmen, mayors and governors or their families and friends.
“We are in a state of disarray by letting go of a big amount that should have gone to the coffers of government and used as ‘ayuda’ for drivers, farmers and fisherfolk,” Senator Tolentino said. At this time when the Duterte administration is scraping the barrel to fund the promised subsidy of P500 per family, efficient collection of gambling taxes should be the first priority, the senator stressed.
Tolentino explained that the complexity in the dynamics surrounding the online sabong industry should be blamed on the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General’s erroneous interpretations of Republic Act 9487, the new PAGCOR charter. This has enabled the questionable authority of the country’s gambling regulatory agency in regulating e-sabong, he said.
The potential income of hundreds of millions of pesos from e-sabong is the prime reason Duterte wanted this gambling activity to stay, despite its negative effects to society. If that is the case, we should at least ensure that the government is collecting the correct amount due from the business owners.
