The Philippine government will be aided by PAGCOR with an additional PHP6 billion to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Additional Funds Released for the Philippine Government
Earlier this month the Socio-Civic Projects Fund (SCPF) of the Office of the President of the Philippines received funding from The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) in two installments – PHP2 billion and PHP500 million.
It wasn’t long after that PAGCOR released additional funds of PHP6 billion which brought the total available funds contributed by the gaming authority to PHP8.5 billion. Similar to the first installment of PHP2 billion, the additional funding is to help the Philippine government fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supporting the tests that are being carried out by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, attaining personal protective gear, and aiding the Bureau of Quarantine will be the main uses of the extra funds, says PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Andrea D. Domingo.
She noted that although the number of infected Filipinos is still small, the situation is still in development and numbers may rise.
Domingo also noted that the Philippine government are doing their best and assured that:
“PAGCOR, being one of the government’s strong partners in nation-building will help ensure that through our funding support, the healthcare sector as well as other frontline government agencies will have access to basic medical necessities that are needed to combat the disease”.
Taking Action to Contain the Epidemic
The confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines are 462 of which 33 patients had passed away and 18 had recovered as of Monday. Globally, there are more than 94,000 patients recovered, 14,600 deceased and over 334,000 confirmed cased of COVID-19.
“We are grateful to PAGCOR for its continued to support to the Office of the President.” says Rizalina Justol, a deputy executive secretary for finance of the Office of the President. She continued by adding“The hefty remittances we get from the agency are being used to for high-impact projects that will benefit a lot of Filipinos.”
In February, the regulator, PAGCOR, reported an 11.7% year-over-year rise in gaming revenue for 2019. In fact, the Philippines stood out as Asia’s top-performing gambling market for 2019, with revenue hitting PHP75.8 billion.
Following the lockdown ordered by the Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, in the Metro Manila region, PAGCOR has also announced that it is taking action to aid the government. All of the resort casinos, online casinos, poker and slot machines, bingos, and similar businesses owned by PAGCOR have been suspended to minimize the risk of transmitting the infection.