FORMER AGHAM Party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones is appealing for a fair assessment of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) on the issue of the third-party auditor that the agency tapped to examine fees paid by Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to the government.

Palmones made this call amid an impending Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation on third-party auditor Global ComRCI, which, according to news reports coming from the Senate, may have “duped” Pagcor and the government into giving them a multibillion-peso contract.

According the former congressman, it is important for the side of Pagcor to be fully heard without any prejudgment from the legislators.

“Kung may question man dito, siguro ay ilatag nila ng mas maayos.

Hindi ‘yung gagamitin natin ang Senado para ipalabas na parang napakasama ho ng namahala ho dati dito or nagregulate dito sa POGO,” said Palmones, now a radio anchor over at DZRH.

Lawyer Jose Tria Jr., Pagcor senior vice president offshore and online gaming, said in a radio interview with Palmones that the agency can prove that its choice of third-party auditor of POGO earnings is above-board. It just needs to be given an opportunity to do so, he said.

“Welcome naman po iyun, sa atin naman po, anytime na ma-question ‘yung mga naging pamamalakad natin dati eh welcome naman po ‘yun. Ang atin lang po ay mabigyan ng tamang pagkakataon na maipaliwanag ‘yung mga naging questions ‘dun sa proceedings. Tiwala akong maipapaliwanag ng maayos ng Pagcor…mabigyan lang ng tamang pagkakataon,” Tria said.

In the interview, Tria bared that Global ComRCI is actually a consortium comprised of three separate companies. Senators had questioned if the auditor was a legitimate company.

“Ang peculiarity po kasi nung auditor natin is, ano po kasi yan eh, consortium. Ibig sabihin, tatlong kumpanya na nagsama-sama to serve as our auditor. Sa atin naman po sa Pilipinas…hindi naman po kasi pinapayagan o wala tayong batas na nagrerehistro ng isang consortium,” explained the Pagcor official.

“Pero yung tatlong kumpanya, individually registered. Medyo peculiar po kasi yung situation kaya hindi lang nagkakaintindihan,” he said.

Tria said that Pagcor had specifically instructed Global ComRCI to “register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), at least”.

“Ang ni-require namin sa kanila is mag-register sa BIR at least para ‘yung payments po kasi syempre kailangang ibayad doon sa consortium.

And they also have to pay the tax doon sa fees na narerecieve nila.

So yung consortium po, as a consortium, ay na-register sa BIR,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palmones highlighted that Pagcor–as a regulator–had been instrumental in significantly raising the government’s collections from online gaming companies.

From a mere P56 million in annual collections before the entry of POGOs, revenues collected from the online gaming industry reached P8 billion in 2019, or the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.

Tria said Pagcor stepped into the picture when online gaming operations began to mushroom, so much that government was already losing millions, if not billions in revenue.

“Ang nangyayari kasi dati, wala nang kinikitang maayos or hindi nakukuha ng government yung rightful share niya sa operations, kaya pumasok si Pagcor,” he said.