PHILIPPINE Sports Commission (PSC) cited the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) for its continuing support to the national sports agency despite the challenges of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Butch Ramirez, during the regular PSC Chatroom held on Saturday afternoon, August 15, said, "Pagcor has been very generous to the PSC in 2018 to 2019, they spent a big amount for our national athletes' training, SEA Games, and Tokyo Olympics preparation. Without Pagcor then there would have been no money to procure the equipment, to fund foreign trips and training, no allowances."
He said while the country's 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2019 hosting success and overall championship victory were attributed mainly to the PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and Phisgoc, Pagcor, under Chief Executive Officer Andrea Domingo, also played a major role in those feats.
It can be recalled that Pagcor gave PSC P842 million last year for the renovation of various SEA Games venues.
The PSC chief said the millions that regular supportive sponsors give are nothing compared to the billions that came from Pagcor for the past decades.
Pagcor has been averaging a monthly contribution of P140 to P150 million but since the pandemic struck, it went down from as low as P7 million since all gaming, where the fund is sourced, had ceased due to the quarantine control measures. This and the realigning of a big chunk of PSC's National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) to assist the national government's Covid-19 response led to the reduction of allowances of national athletes and coaches by half.
Under Republic Act 6847, also known as the PSC Act, five percent of the gross revenues of Pagcor must be allocated to the NSDF.