PAGCOR spurns Ongpin’s offer to donate his Philweb majority shareholding

Pagcor chief says the issue is not Ongpin’s ownership of Philweb, but President Duterte’s stand against online gambling.

Fomer Philweb chairman Roberto Ongpin’s offer to donate his majority shareholding in the company to Pagcor (see previous reports) has been spurned by Pagcor chief Andrea Domingo, according to reports Thursday in Philippines media.

Domingo confirmed to local reporters that her office had rejected Ongpin’s offer to donate 49 percent pf his majority stake in Philweb after her organisation refused to renew the company’s licence despite a 14 year relationship, making continued operations impossible.

Domingo explained that the issue was not Ongpin’s ownership of Philweb per se, but Philippines national President Rodrigo Duterte’s firm stand against the social ills brought about by online gambling.

In making the offer of the donation earlier this week Ongpin said it was “a final attempt to save the jobs of about 700 Philweb employees, plus about 5,000 others who are employed by the Pagcor operators in 286 e-Games sites.”

Philweb executives have repeatedly pointed out to state-owned Pagcor that the company contributes around P2.1 billion a year to its coffers, and that average spend of each e-games player was about P5,000 per day, proving that the company is hardly preying on “the poor and indigent.”

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