The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) stands to receive a hefty amount from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) after the Supreme Court (SC) denied its appeal to remit the full amount of gross income to the sports agency from 1993 up to the present.
The ruling came out Friday with the Pagcor now mandated to give to the PSC what it is due as indicated in Section 26 of the PSC Law under Republic Act 6847.
It was then Pampanga congressman Yeng Guiao who petitioned the Pagcor to pay the PSC the amount that was deducted from the financial assistance it received.
The former Rain or Shine head coach filed the petition when he was serving as the representative of the province’s first district back in 2016.
SC Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonan penned the decision that orders the Pagcor and PSC to give what the PSC is due based on annual remittances from 1993 to the present time in the Pagcor’s case and 2006 until today in the case of the PCSO.
The balance should be settled over a period of ten years, according to the SC ruling.
“This is a victory for Philippine Sports and our people in general. It’s been long delayed justice that the Supreme Court has rectified with this landmark decision,” Guiao said.
“We should be grateful to all the justices of the supreme court for their unanimous judgement on this matter of utmost consequence to the future of Philippine sports,” he added.
Guiao insists that the PSC is entitled to receive 5 percent of the gross income but only got 2.5 percent as the half went directly to the President’s discretionary funds.
For so many years, it became standard practice that the PSC would only get half of 5 percent.