GOCCs remitted record P374.5B in dividends during Duterte admin — DOF

A day before the Duterte administration ends, the Department of Finance (DOF) on Wednesday touted the record-high dividends remitted by state-owned companies during the six-year term of the outgoing regime.

In a statement, the DOF said government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) have remitted a record P374.54 billion in cash dividends to the National Treasury from July 2016, when President Rodrigo Duterte took office, until the last few weeks before his term ends on June 30.

The record dividends remitted by GOCCs reflect “the rigorous fiscal discipline and responsibility instilled by the Department of Finance in the state corporate sector on his watch.”

The Finance Department noted that the P374.54 billion remitted by GOCCs was equivalent to a 127% increase from the P164.81 billion collected under the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III.

Compared to the dividend remittances of P60.82 billion under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the DOF said the amount collected under the Duterte administration is P313.72 billion or 516% higher.

The remittance of dividends by GOCCs to the National Treasury is mandated under Republic Act 7656 or the Dividends Law.

In 2020, the Duterte administration collected the highest amount of dividends ever, totaling P135.13 billion, according to the Finance Department, adding that “this was partly due to RA 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.”

The law, also 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.

Even without the Bayanihan Law, the DOF said the 2020 collection is on par with the 2019 level.

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, it said.

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