Palace: Nothing wrong with perks received by PAGCOR chief

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang sees nothing wrong with the admission of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) chairman Cristino Naguiat that he received perks and privileges from a Japanese gambling tycoon.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda downplayed the issue between PAGCOR and American firm Wynn Resorts Ltd. whose chief executive Steve Wynn accused PAGCOR officials of receiving $110,000 payment from Kazuo Okada.

Lacierda said this is the position taken by no less than President Aquino. “He (Aquino) was made aware (of the issues). That’s precisely what he said, the explanation given by Chairman Bong Naguiat. It’s an industry practice,” he said.

“In that perspective where we’re able to save on cost and it’s an industry practice, that’s what he mentioned. In the matter of being able to save on costs, that is beneficial to the government and Naguiat never profited from it personally anyway,” he added.

Wynn, 70, accused Okada, 69, of making improper payments and gifts totaling about $110,000 to Filipino gaming regulators as the latter’s Universal Entertainment Corp. broke ground at the 12-hectare PAGCOR Entertainment City in Manila Bay.

The entertainment was dubbed as Manila’s counterpart of the Las Vegas strip in United States.

Universal Entertainment’s subsidiary is Tiger Resorts, Leisure and Entertainment Inc.

PAGCOR reportedly awarded Okada’s group with a contract to build a hotel-resort complex in the Entertainment City during the time of Naguiat’s predecessor, Efraim Genuino.

Aside from accusing Okada of improper payments to foreign gaming regulators, Wynn Resorts Ltd. also forcibly bought back Okada’s 20-percent stake in the casino company at a deep discount.

Okada was also asked to resign as director of Wynn Resorts, the company said, adding that it will also recommend that he be removed as a director from the board of its Hong Kong subsidiary, Wynn Macau Ltd.

Getting perks and privileges from foreign gaming companies is not entirely a taboo, according to Lacierda, especially if the government can cut its operational costs.

“We’re coming from a perspective of cutting costs. Chairman Naguiat has already mentioned that this is an industry practice,” he reasoned out, noting that sponsoring a convention in a foreign country where the standard of living is very costly is better.

“It’s an industry practice, number one. Number two, in terms of Mr. Okada, I think it has been very clear that the provisional license was not granted by this administration but previously granted in 2008,” he said.

Meanwhile, PAGCOR generated a total of P3.36 billion in revenues in January this year, an increase of P600 million or 22 percent during the same month last year.

“Our casinos, arcades and in-house bingo operations yielded P505 million or 26 percent income growth compared to the same month last year. We also surpassed the January 2012 gaming income target of P2.38 billion operations by 3.07 percent,” Naguiat said.– With Helen Flores