Hail Edwin Olivarez Bill 9874

Hail Edwin Olivarez Bill 9874 | Daily Tribune

The bill will boost Parañaque City’s income by billions of pesos next calendar year and further raise its ranking among the richest cities in the Philippines.

The House of Representatives approved on 4 March, on third and final reading, House Bill 9874 of Representative Edwin Olivarez of the first district of Parañaque City, setting the share of local government units from the earnings of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation or Pagcor.

Soon after its approval by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the bill will be known as the Edwin Olivarez Law.

If the country now has the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling, it will soon have the Edwin Olivarez Law that will have a similar significance and magnitude of benefits for all local government units hosting Pagcor.

The Mandanas-Garcia Ruling is a Supreme Court decision in 2018 that the just share of local government units from national taxes is not limited to “national internal revenue taxes” collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue but includes collections from customs duties by the Bureau of Customs and other tax collecting agencies.

The Olivarez Law specifically gives host cities a two-percent share from the franchise taxes of casinos, e-game, e-bingo, and all Pagcor-operated or regulated games or licenses, which before was not specifically provided in Section 12 of Presidential Decree 1869, or the Pagcor Charter.

On 26 January 2024, Parañaque City Mayor Eric Olivarez expressed full support for the bill introduced by his brother Edwin calling for the fixing of the host city share of Pagcor earnings. He detailed the costs of being the host city for three world-class integrated resorts and casinos — Solaire, Okada and City of Dreams.

The Olivarez bill was carefully examined by Senator Francis Tolentino who authored the counterpart Senate Bill 2061. He explained the rationale for the bill and expressed his empathy toward local government units that have to shoulder the social service costs of hosting casinos and resorts.

Congressman Olivarez said that the share would be a big help to local government units as they could use this for infrastructure or provide more services to their constituents. He thanked his colleagues in the House, as well as the Parañaque City government, for supporting the measure.

Interestingly, the share from the earnings of Pagcor would analogously be a boon to the fairy tale, like the rise of the “Cinderella Man” in the movie and the Cinderella City of Parañaque.

“Cinderella Man,” the movie, is the true story of an athlete who achieved his greatest success against the most daunting odds to put a stake through the sagging American economy, become the heavyweight champion of the world, and inspire the whole nation to recover from the Great Depression.

The Cinderella City of Parañaque is the true story of the city that achieved its greatest success from its impoverished situation in 2011 and being nowhere on the list of the rich to suddenly, in 2022, be in a state of plenty with assets of P27 billion and rank tenth among the richest Philippine cities.

Rep. Edwin Olivarez and Mayor Eric Olivarez are showing their humility and simplicity, the essential elements of greatness. Rep. Edwin despite his feats has remained publicity shy, while Mayor Eric is still his simple self as manifested by his public service slogan, “Nurse na, Teacher pa.”

“Nurse na” for nutrition and medical attention; “teacher pa” for education and sports, exercise machines, and gymnasiums, altogether making for a healthy and happy community managed to global standards as it’s done in America.

With their mental acuity, the formidable tandem of Rep. Edwin Olivarez and Mayor Eric Olivarez, with the support of their vibrant and resilient community, will transform Parañaque into the magnificent Cinderella City of the Philippines.