The Philippines Department of Finance says it is ready to help privatize the casino operations of gaming regulator PAGCOR, adding that the goal of preparing assets for sale by 2025 is “very feasible”.
In comments made to local media outlet BusinessWorld, Finance Undersecretary Catherine L. Fong said the DoF was “waiting for PAGCOR’s cue.
“[PAGCOR] Chairman [Alejandro] Tengco asked for time to organize the transition and increase cash flows to the casinos for higher value sales. Once PAGCOR is ready, we can acquire independent appraisals to set a base price for auction.”
Tengco revealed during the recent IAG Academy Summit at Hilton Manila, Newport World Resorts, that PAGCOR would be ready to start selling of its casino operations by 2025, although some media outlets have mistakenly interpreted this as the regulator expecting to complete the privatization process by then.
“The current PAGCOR administration is just more than a year in office,” Tengco said at the summit. “This means we have more than enough time of accomplishing our goals of being more dynamic, more profitable and more focused as a purely regulatory corporation.”
BusinessWorld quoted Antonio A. Ligon, a law and business professor at De La Salle University, as describing PAGCOR’s privatization push a “welcome development.”
“Drawing of lines as to the responsibilities will be relevant and necessary to avoid conflict of interest,” Ligon said.
“Crucial in the transition will be the personnel and the necessary system operations. It will be a good opportunity to come up with streamlined operation structures, together with a corrupt-free mechanism.” he said.
RelatedPosts
