In a Senate budget hearing Wednesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government could collect around ₱220 billion if Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporaiton will focus on regulating the industry and collecting funds rather than be involved in operations under the current set-up."Basically separating the regulatory function away from the operating function... we will probably generate around ₱220 billion," Dominguez said.
He added that the department had previously submitted a proposal on the measure to Congress but it just gathered dust. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said privatizing the industry would be able to plug fund leakages, and will prevent the government form losing money. "With this privatization, you will be able to check on many of the income leakages all over the place. This is something that can put order and correct a lot of things that had gone wrong because of the current setup," Drilon said.
Drilon and Domingues agreed that a conflict of interest arose from PAGCOR being both the regulator and operator of gambling activities.CNN Philippines correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report.