Unlike his beleaguered predecessor, Pagcor chairman and CEO Cristino Naguiat Jr. knows a thing or two about keeping his job.
His time as the boss of the Philippines’ gambling regulator has seen the agency post record-setting growth and for his efforts, Philippine president Benigno Aquino III reappointed him as Pagcor chairman. Maybe his efforts in spearheading the development of Entertainment City had a lot to do with it, unlike somebody who decided that the best way to spend the agency’s funds was to buy movie tickets at ridiculously inflated prices. Just a thought.
In addition to Naguiat, four other members of the Pagcor board were also reappointed. Included in the list are chief operating officer Jorge Sarmiento, Eugene Manalastas, Enriquito Nuguid and Jose Tanjuatco. Together with Naguiat, all four board members will see their new tenure run until June 30, 2014.
The faith President Aquino has shown in Naguiat and his crew wasn’t lost on the chairman. In a statement released just after the president signed their appointments, Naguiat blushed at the thought of having another run as Pagcor’s chair and CEO while also reaffirming his position of steering the government-run agency to greater heights in 2014. “Foremost among the several advocacies of Pagcor is the improvement of the quality of education in the country by providing thousands of classrooms nationwide even in far-flung areas,” Naguiat said.
“To date, it has allocated P5 billion for its school building project, the biggest corporate social responsibility project of Pagcor in its 28-year history.”
More importantly, Naguiat also bared the agency’s revenue target for the year, which he set at $1 billion, around Php45 billion based on current exchange rates. It’s a reasonable number considering that the agency came close to it last year at an estimated Php 42.9 billion, around $945 million according to my local currency exchange parlor. Whether Naguiat steers Pagcor to its target remains to be seen, but the president seems to have faith in him. And in a country like the Philippines, you’d want that dude on your side.
