Aquino: I’m leaving P164B behind

PRESIDENT Aquino is ending his six-year term with P164.33 billion in the government coffers, courtesy of dividends remitted by government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC).

The President said this was more than double the total dividends remitted by GOCCs under the more than nine-year administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which remitted P84.18 billion from 2001 to 2010.

“My promise to our boss: I will leave this country in a totally different situation from what I came upon,” Mr. Aquino said in a speech during the 2016 GOCC Dividends Day at Malacañang.

He said his administration fixed the GOCC system with the passage of the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, which supervises and monitors the service of government corporations.

For this year, he said the GOCCs remitted P27.28 billion, on top of the P12.92 billion representing remittances of other corporations.

“We can see the difference of the service provided by our GOCC,” Mr. Aquino said, citing the APO Production Unit, a government printing office, for undoing its image of suffering losses through reforms.

The APO’s P329.14 million in sales in 2010 increased by P1.21 billion last year, the President said.

This year, the APO remitted P5 million in dividends, he added.

Mr. Aquino said the GOCC contributions were able to fund programs under unprogrammed projects such as modernizing the military, education and health.