PSC eyeing P1.3 billion next year

MANILA, Philippines - With the help of Congress, the Philippine Sports Commission can get as much as P1.3 billion from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the other cash-rich government agencies next year.

Chairman Richie Garcia said this will happen if the PSC gets its full share of five percent from Pagcor’s monthly earnings, and not the 2.5 percent it’s been getting the past few years.

Garcia said a thorough and deliberate interpretation of the law provides for Pagcor remitting to the government sports agency five percent of its monthly income.

As it is, the PSC is only getting 2.5 percent from Pagcor, amounting to more than P40 million a month.

And with additional contributions from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Philippine Racing Commission, the PSC gets around P700 million a year.

“If Pagcor can give us what we’re asking we can generate another P600 million and that will mean P1.3 billion for us to implement an honest to goodness grassroots program,” said Garcia.

But the PSC needs the help of Congress or even Malacañang to make things happen.

“The report that I got is that more congressmen are pushing for the implementation of the PSC’s five percent share from Pagcor. It’s just a matter of following it up,” said Garcia.

“Hopefully we can get it for our athletes’ preparations for future games. Then we can demand better performance because we will be able to give proper training and equipment,” said the PSC chief.

“That’s the target of the PSC for next year, and then our performance in international competitions will not be like in the past years.”

The PSC is in need of any additional funding because it stands to receive only P168 million from the General Appropriations Act for 2011. 

The PSC, under then chairman Harry Angping, proposed a budget of P740 million for 2011, but the Department of Budget only endorsed P168 million, or less than 20 percent of it, to Congress.

“To be fair with the DBM, the P168 million it proposed for next year is a draft of our budget of P224 million for this year (2010). All the government departments and agencies are facing budget cuts for next year,” he said.

The money from the GAA is supposed to be spent on grassroots development, infrastructure, including maintenance and repair of sports facilities, and the salaries of the PSC officials and employees.