Pagcor releases P12-B cash dividends for fight vs COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has released P12 billion worth of its dividends for 2019, to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the economy.

According to a Pagcor statement issued on Monday, this P12 billion is way higher than what the government required them to remit, which was set at P6.33 billion.

“Pagcor turned over the P12 billion cheque a day earlier than the set date (March 24, 2020),” the government-controlled corporation said.  “Pagcor Chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo said that […] the agency’s 2019 cash dividends was 44.74% higher than the required 50% annual net earnings of the agency.”

This latest remittance is apart from the P2.5 billion donation of Pagcor to the national government to curb the spread of COVID-19.  As a government-controlled or owned corporation, Pagcor is required to remit at least 50% of its annual income to the government.

Pagcor said it got a letter from Finance Secretary  Carlos Dominguez explaining that the P12 billion remittance would “make a substantial contribution to the efforts of the national government to cushion the impact of a severe drop in government revenues, brought about by the slowdown in business activities due to measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19.”

Starting last Monday, the whole of Luzon was put under an “enhanced community quarantine” due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, forcing a lot of private industries to suspend operations, leaving only frontline service operators like healthcare workers and service crew members to work.

According to the Department of Health, as of this writing, there are already 462 confirmed cases in the Philippines, 33 of whom died, while 18 have recovered.

Worldwide, over 334,000 COVID-19 cases have been recorded, while 14,608 patients have died and 96,243 have recovered.

Previously, the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) said that the gross domestic product growth of the country might be hampered by the COVID-19 and the Luzon quarantine.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in Wuhan City in Hubei province in China in late 2019.

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.

The coronavirus is a family of viruses with surfaces having a crown-like appearance. The viruses are named for the spikes on their surfaces.

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