The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is a billion peso enterprise. A cash cow. The campaign slogan of then President Rodrigo Duterte is that ‘change is coming’. If change indeed is really coming, it is too slow for the thousands of PAGCOR employees. Some of them, and they are many I tell you, were hired in 1986 and never got any promotion.
OMG, that’s really a long time. Maybe therre were some increases in pay, but peanuts compared to the billions the corporation is earning annually.
The Pagcor employees talk in whispers. They resent the management style of the past leadership. The big bosses enjoyed perks, privileges and high salaries. The workers? Pittance. It is quite ironic.
Also the employees are asking if they are classified as government workers or not. If they are, why don’t they get coverage from the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS)? The deductions on their pay envelopes, aside from the mandatory 20% cut of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), go to Social Security System, the insurer for workers employed by private firms.
Now with Chair Andrea D. Domingo holding the reins, the rank and file are hoping they will ultimately get the promotion and pay they deserve. And by the way, smoking in the casinos, both operated by PAGCOR and privately run, should be prohibited. The casino workers mostly dealing on baccarat tables absorb most of the second-hand smoke.
Consider the fact that two past presidents, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III are Kapampangans, yet they failed to help their cabalens who comprise the biggest number of PAGCOR employees. Under Aquino, Cristino Naguiat Jr. of Angeles City was chairman and now Domingo of Sta. Ana, Pampanga is the top executive.
The question really now is if Domingo can make significant change in the morale of the rank and file which sunk to the basement over a long period of time.