The Philippine Ports Authority is among the country’s Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations or GOCCs remitting the most contributions into government coffers.

According to the Department of Finance, the PPA was the fourth highest dividend contributor to the national treasury in 2023 after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

Increasing dividend hikes

“This underscores a trend of increasing dividend hikes by the PPA starting 2016 with P1.96 billion, followed by P3.10 billion in 2017, P3.52 billion in 2018, a record-high of P5.05 billion in 2019, P3.76 billion during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a rebound to P4.08 billion in 2021, and P4.44 billion in 2022,” the PPA said in a statement on Friday.

“These figures solidify PPA’s position as one of the top GOCCs in terms of dividend remittances,” it added.

From 2016 to 2022, the PPA remitted a total of P25.91 billion, marking the highest remittance in decades.

Meanwhile, during the recent Performance Target Conference conducted by the Governance Commission for GOCCs last 14 February, PPA general manager Jay Santiago engaged GCG chairperson Atty. Marius Corpus in collaborative discussions to solidify the agency’s performance targets for the year 2024,

Pivotal role

Under Republic Act 10149 (GOCC Governance Act of 2011), the GCG plays a pivotal role in institutionalizing the performance evaluation system to ensure accountability and responsiveness within GOCCs.

Agencies, including the PPA, use the Performance Scorecard — a result of discussions between the agency and the GCG — to establish their strategic measures, goals, and activities under the PES.

The accomplishment of the set targets outlined in the Performance Scorecard becomes instrumental in determining various aspects such as the grant of performance-based incentives to the appointive directors as well as officers and employees of the agency, the reappointment of the agency’s head, and the determination of whether or not the agency should be reorganized, merged, privatized, or abolished.