After years of waiting, employees of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation should have their salaries aligned with other GOCCs after the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) committed to issue an Authority to Implement (ATI) for PAGCOR’s new Compensation and Position Classification System or CPCS.

PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco said that the GCG commitment to issue an Authority to Implement the CPCS came during a meeting between the GCG and PAGCOR’s Compliance Department and Human Resources and Development Group last 1 December 2023.

This was confirmed by GCG Commissioner Atty. Geraldine Berberabe-Martinez during a media interview last week when she said that the Commission would likely issue the Authority to Implement by 31 January 2024.

The GCG, which is mandated to regulate and supervise government-owned and -controlled corporations, issued Memorandum Circular No. 2015-04 in 2015 ordering the reorganization, rationalization, and personnel planning as a requisite for the approval of any reorganization and increase in employees’ pay in GOCCs.

Then-president Benigno Aquino III later issued Executive Order No. 203 adopting the CPCS for all GOCCs, PAGCOR included.

However, during the next administration, President Duterte issued EO 36 in July 2017 suspending the CPCS, and GOCCs were given the option to adopt a modified salary structure or retain its current compensation framework. PAGCOR opted for the latter.

President Duterte later issued another order, EO No. 150, reinstating the CPCS as well as the Index of Occupational Services, Position Titles, and Job Grades for GOCCs. It took effect after publication on 5 October 2021.

PAGCOR completed the submission for the new requirements in November 2021 in its efforts to secure CPCS approval.

However, in June 2022, in the last month of the Duterte administration, GCG conducted an onsite validation at PAGCOR and discovered that the agency had created an E-Sabong Licensing Department, among others, without GCG authorization as required, thus delaying the CPCS anew.

Tengco said that when he assumed the helm at PAGCOR in August 2022, he immediately inquired with GCG about the status of the agency’s CPCS and was told that it was still under evaluation.

He, thus, ordered PAGCOR Corporate Secretary and Compliance Officer, Atty. Leoncio Joel Barrameda III, to meet with the GCG and work for the approval of the CPCS starting in December 2022.

After a year of negotiations, the GCG informed PAGCOR last 1 December 2023 that it plans to issue an ATI for PAGCOR’s CPCS on or before 31 January 2024.