GOCCs remit record P374.5-B dividends to government

Government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) have remitted a precedent-setting P374.54 billion in cash dividends to the National Treasury from the time President Duterte took office in July 2016 up to the last few weeks before his term ends on June 30, reflecting the rigorous fiscal discipline and responsibility instilled by the Department of Finance (DOF) in the state corporate sector on his watch.

This total amount remitted by GOCCs as mandated under Republic Act (RA) No. 7656 or the Dividends Law represents a 127-percent increase or P209.73 billion more than the P164.81 billion collected under the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III, according to the report of the DOF’s Corporate Affairs Group (CAG) to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

Compared to the dividend remittances of P60.82 billion under the administration of President Gloria Arroyo, the amount collected under the Duterte presidency is P313.72 billion or 516-percent higher.

In 2020, the Duterte administration collected the highest amount of dividends ever totaling totaling P135.13 billion. This was partly due to RA 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

This law, better known as Bayanihan 1, authorized the President “to allocate cash, funds, investments, including unutilized or unreleased subsidies and transfers, held by any GOCC or any national government agency” to help address the COVID-19 emergency.

“However, even without the Bayanihan Law, the 2020 collection is at par with the 2019 level. The total cash collection during the Duterte administration represents a 77-percent increase over the Aquino administration,” Cruz said.

The dividend remittances of GOCCs for the fiscal year 2020 have been utilized to augment funds for the government’s cash-intensive pandemic response programs, including providing emergency subsidies to low-income families, displaced workers, and other groups hard hit by the Covid-driven global economic slowdown.

As of the first half of June 2022 alone, the total cash collection from GOCCs this year already reached P58.25 billion, which is higher than the dividend collection level in 2021 of P57.55 billion.