PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco has this week met with newly elected officials of the PAGCOR Employees’ Association (PAGCEA), stating that he recognizes the association as the legitimate representative of PAGCOR workers. As such, he added that he is willing to work with the group to promote and protect the welfare of employees, according to information released by the state gaming regulator on Tuesday.
PAGCOR described the meeting as “cordial” with Tengco later posing for photos with PAGCEA members.
The announcement from PAGCOR coincided with his Keynote Address at the IAG Academy Summit, where Tengco said he was still looking to privatize, or “decouple”, the agency’s self-run Casino Filipino operations but acknowledged that doing so would impact PAGCOR employees.
The reorganization of PAGCOR was just as important as privatization itself, he said, “since Casino Filipino branches and several corporate departments will definitely be affected when the privatization efforts happen.
“And so, we have made it our utmost priority to ensure that employees will be sufficiently taken care of, whether through redeployment within the restructured organization, absorption by the privatized casinos or through competitive retirement and special separation packages,” Tengco explained.
PAGCOR last year installed almost 2,000 new slot machines across its Casino Filipino branches under a plan to modernize them before selling off its licenses.
Tengco also revealed during Tuesday’s Keynote that PAGCOR has submitted relevant documentation around privatization and is awaiting approval from the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG) to proceed.
