GOCC dividends trigger bonus talk from Aquino

GOVERNMENT- OWNED and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) remitted payments to the government of P36.85 billion for the 2014 financial year, up 13%, prompting Malacañang to order a study into GOCC compensation, with the President noting that executives and employees in this sector of government may have been neglected.

“I want a review of the bonuses that have been accruing all of the people involved in the GOCCs. Because in our interest to make you more efficient, maybe we have forgotten you,” President Benigno S. C. Aquino III said at the GOCC dividend turnover ceremony at Malacañang.

The Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), which supervises the industry, “implemented several structural reforms within the sector to ensure that GOCCs achieve their full potential,” among which includes the promulgation and the robust implementation of the ownership and operations manual,” GCG Secretary Cesar L. Villanueva said in his speech at the dividend check handover.

“In July, we go to the third round of implementing performance targets,” he added.

In 2014, the GOCC remitted a total of P32.31 billion worth of dividends and other payments to the government derived from their performance in 2013.

Land Bank of the Philippines was the top dividend producer for 2014, remitting a total of P6.254 billion. On the other hand, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. had the highest overall remittances at P10.137 billion.

Eight more GOCCs are in the billion- peso club for dividends. These are the Bases and Conversion Development Authority with P3.201 billion; the Development Bank of the Philippines with P3.135 billion, Food Terminal, Inc., with P2.305 billion; Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. with P2.1 billion; the Philippine Ports Authority with P1.817 billion; the Philippine National Oil Co., with P1.525 billion; the Manila International Airport Authority with P1.339 billion; and the Philippine Reclamation Authority with P1.2 billion.

The sub- billion contributors included Clark Development Corp. (CDC), which said in a statement that it recorded its highest remittance since 2006, paying P400 million to the government.

CDC said its cash position at the end of 2014 stood at an alltime high of P2.277 billion, while unaudited net income was P554 million, the highest level in CDC’s history.