Inside Asian Gaming

44 (-) Cristino ‘Bong’ Naguiat Chairman Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation Cristino Naguiat was named chairman of the Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) last year by the country’s incoming president, Benigno Aquino. Mr Naguiat, said to be a long- standing personal friend of Mr Aquino, replaced the former PAGCOR chairman Efraim Genuino. Mr Naguiat was presented to the public at that time as a new broom to clean up PAGCOR, which has faced numerous media allegations of internal corruption and mismanagement in the last few years. It seems Mr Naguiat has a lot to investigate. In July, not only was his predecessor Dr Genuino charged with plunder in a public office and graft, but 40 other former senior PAGCOR officials and their associates were implicated, according to a report by the ABS- CBN television news channel. The charges claim “at least” PHP186 million (US$14.1 million) was misused or went missing. Among those charged, said the channel and other news outlets, was former PAGCOR board member Rafael Francisco (ex-COO and President). Also accused were: Jose Benedicto (former PAGCOR chief-of-staff); Rene Figueroa (former executive vice- president); Edward King (former VP for Corporate Communications and Services Department); and attorney Carlos Bautista Jr (former VP for the PAGCOR Legal Department). Some commentators have characterised these events as political score- settling by the incoming administration, rather than as criminal matters, but it hardly helps the country’s public relations image as a safe place for casino investment. On 23rd August, Philippine news sources further reported some PAGCOR officials had been accused of taking bribes from a leader of a ‘Singaporean gaming syndicate’. It was also alleged some PAGCOR casino branch managers illegally received cuts of players’ winnings whenever the accused syndicate leader visited local casinos. The Philippine government allegedly lost PHP150 million due to illegal operations by the syndicate in three government casinos in Manila, said the reports. Such claims will also lead sceptics to revisit the debate about the wisdom of having PAGCOR—the operator of government- owned casinos—being simultaneously the regulator of private and public sector gaming venues. It’s not all been bad news for PAGCOR. Work on the Belle Grande Manila Bay—a privatecasinodevelopmentwithareported price tag of US$750 million—between local companies Leisure and Resorts World Corp and Belle Corp in the national capital, Manila, is proceeding. The property may have a first phase opening next year. There was also talk in the Philippines media in early September—unconfirmed at the time IAG went to press—of a Macau casino operator being interested in investing in the project. Asian Gaming 50 – 2011 45 (42) Albee Benitez Member, House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines Founding President, Leisure and Resorts World Corp, First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corp Albee Benitez is the founder of Leisure and Resorts World Corp (LRWC), a Philippines-listed company that has a wide range of interests in online and land-based gaming and leisure in that country. Mr Benitez was required by law to dispose of his gaming interests on election to the Philippines senate last year. But he remains highly influential in the sector. AB Leisure Global Inc., a subsidiary of LRWC, was identified earlier this year as the operator and manager of a major new casino resort—the US$1 billion Belle Grande Manila Bay. The companies founded and built by Mr Benitez still have extensive interests in land-based and online gaming. The LRWC unit First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corp has a dual role as regulator of the Philippines’offshore-aimed online gaming and betting industries as well as an operator in that sector. Cagayan Special Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), in the northern portion of the main island Luzon, is the centre of the country’s online industry in terms of technical infrastructure, management and, crucially, licensing and taxation. Through another subsidiary—AB Leisure Exponent, Inc—Leisure and Resorts World Corp operates the country’s largest group of bingo halls. Those facilities are separately regulated by the country’s regulator-cum-operator of land-based gaming, The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR). Last year, Congressman Benitez opposed a reported attempt INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2011 54