UNLIKE his predecessors, Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Noli Eala aims to finally obtain the full share of five percent of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. gross income to the PSC as mandated by Republic Act 6847, the law that created the government sports agency.
“We are keen on restoring the full five percent of Pagcor gross income to the PSC’s National Sports Development Fund during my term. My priority in my early days (as chairman) is to rationalize and strengthen our relationship with our funders and streamline our request for additional funds,” Eala said.
“We have already done initial the initial steps that will hopefully address the issue,” he added.
Not even former PSC chief Butch Ramirez, who had very close ties with President Rodrigo Duterte, was able to accomplish the feat, although the PSC was able to gain record high revenues from Pagcor during his term until the COVID-19 pandemic struck in the first quarter of 2020.
“We understand that there are many members of Congress in the House and Senate who want to help in institutionalizing the (five percent remittance) of Pagcor by amending or at least passing legislative initiatives for this purpose,” Eala said. “We are working on this and there will be a systematic program to ultimately reach that objective from getting the five percent from Pagcor.”
Under RA 6847 that was signed into law in 1990 by the late President Corazon Aquino, five percent of Pagcor’s income must be remitted regularly to the PSC’s National Sports Development Fund.
Pagcor is the main source of revenue for the NSDF, which is used to fund the needs of national athletes and coaches, including their training, allowances and international competitions.
Eala revealed in a recent Senate hearing presided over by Sen. Bong Go, who heads the Senate Sports Committee, that “historically 2.3 percent of the Pagcor income has been remitted to the PSC because of its own computation.
“We have elicited a legal opinion that it should be the full five percent and that Pagcor has apparently been wrong in their computation of the remittance,” Eala said.
During the same hearing last week, Eala revealed the PSC is not receiving the right amount of revenues from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Racing Commission and the five percent from customs duties of imported sports equipment as mandated by RA 6847.
“Under 6847, the PSC is entitled to 30 percent from six draws of the PCSO, which said that lotto is excluded so what we now get is about P170,000 annually while those coming from Philracom and customs duties are not directed to us directed but to the National Treasury,” he said.
He added that the Philracom and customs duties were incorporated in the PSC allotment in the General Appropriations Act or national budget.
Eala pointed out that a study made in 2010 showed that Singapore and Thailand had an annual sports budget of P5 billion compared to the P186 million that the PSC received from the national budget “and yet ang mga atleta natin ay patuloy na lumalaban para sa bayan.”
