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Very few
people saw its significance, but the passage recently of
the long-pending bill granting the Philippine Amusement
and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) a new 25-year franchise would
definitely have a major positive impact on our economy.
In only a few months—or at least before the year is
over—the whole country will begin to see the windows of
opportunity that have been flung wide open with the
approval of the measure.
I don’t
know why the congressional approval of the new Pagcor
franchise took so long. The proposal to grant the
government-owned corporation a new franchise was filed
in the House more than five years ago at the start of
the 12th Congress. The bill was approved by the House.
But the Senate did not have time to act on it up to the
adjournment of session. Alas, the Senate was too
preoccupied with its headline-making investigations to
care about this piece of meaningful legislation.
The same
thing almost happened the next time around. When the
13th Congress was convened, the bill was technically
back to square one. The measure had to be filed in the
House again as a new bill (this time as HB 3409) and
undergo the same rigmarole it went through during the
12th Congress.
And it
would have again lapsed into a technical demise in the
Senate at the end of the three-year lifetime of the 13th
Congress had President Arroyo not called for a special
session for the passage of the antiterror bill and other
urgent pending measures. Fortunately, though rather
belatedly, it finally dawned upon our legislators that
the renewal of the Pagcor franchise was a vital economic
measure. And so, toward the end of the two-day special
session, HB 3409 managed to squeak through the last
hurdle (or second reading) of the legislative process.
Now it’s
just a matter of having the bill signed into law by the
President.
Over the
past five years, Pagcor chairman and chief executive
officer Efraim Genuino—who has been described as a
self-made businessman and socio-civic leader—has been
nurturing a dream. He dreams of building what he likes
to call the “Pagcor E-City” with the “E” standing for
entertainment.
Pagcor
E-City would largely focus on entertainment instead of
casino gaming, a complex that would have something to
offer by way of entertainment to every member of a
family.
Genuino,
by the way, was among the very few who have been
bestowed the CEO Excellence award by the International
Association of Business Communicators (Philippines)
alongside Finance Secretary Gary Teves, Unilever CEO
Howard Belton, Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca and Ayala Land
CEO Jaime Ayala. Now that the renewal of the Pacgor
franchise is a fait accompli, Genuino has wasted no time
in transforming his “dream city” into a program of
well-defined phases accompanied by specific plans of
action.
He has
absolutely no doubt that his concept of Pagcor E-City
would become a glittering reality within the next few
years.
“We’re
undertaking a paradigm shift from gaming to
entertainment, a concept that members and leaders of the
Catholic Church have openly supported,” Genuino says.
Incidentally, Genuino is also proud of the fact that
Pope Benedict VI had formally bestowed on Pagcor and
Genuino the former’s apostolic blessing in recognition
of Pagcor’s humanitarian programs.
In one
of our conversations, Chairman Genuino explained that
for more than four years now, many foreign investors
have been raring to come in and invest in the
realization of Pagcor E-City.
“The
investors have all the while been waiting in the wings
for the congressional approval of our new franchise,”
Genuino said. The only thing that deterred them from
putting in their money was the fact that the old
franchise was good only up to
July 11, 2008.
He also
intimated that all the while, in anticipation of the new
franchise, Pagcor had quietly blocked off 700 hectares
of contiguous reclaimed land (larger than Singapore?) in
the Manila Bay area in partnership with the Public
Estates Authority (PEA). It is now just a matter of
evaluating which foreign investors to accommodate in the
proposed city.
The
proposed city will have arcades, malls, hotels, a
racetrack, residential villages, recreation parks,
theaters, wellness spas, convention sites and, of
course, gaming centers—in short, the works—comparable to
the facilities of Las Vegas and the modernized Macau
complex. Definitely, he says, the objective is to build
an entertainment complex more dazzling than the one in
Thailand.
Genuino
estimates that the initial capital expenditure of
foreign investors eager to come in will be anywhere
between $5 billion and $10 billion. Already, he says,
among the early birds who want a piece of Pagcor City
are big names in the international gaming industry from
Las Vegas,
Monte Carlo and Macau.
Genuino
is so enthused by the gaggle of economic opportunities
that would come our way once Pagcor starts building this
modern city with a total global outlook. The
construction phase alone, he says, would mean billions
in direct foreign investments that would surely quicken
the pace of economic activity in this part of Asia.
“But the
beauty of it all is that the Philippines will not spend
for this ambitious developmental project. That’s how
Bill Gates became the richest man in the world. He did
not have the capital, but he had a brilliant concept to
sell in Microsoft.”
Pagcor
until now has been the third largest revenue raiser of
the government next only to the Bureau of Internal
Revenue and the Bureau of Customs, with a progressively
increasing contribution to the government’s coffers
amounting to P22 billion annually.
When
Pagcor E-City finally begins to rise by next year at the
latest, think of all the money it will attract from
around the world.
Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com |
