Dividends remitted by government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to the National Treasury in 2017 amounted to P30.45 billion, representing a 9.8 percent increase from the previous year’s collections of P27.73 billion, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the 2017 dividend collections actually exceeded the P27.73 billion remittances in 2016 even if Land Bank of the Philippines was exempted from paying its P6 billion dividends in 2017 to allow it to recapitalize and better serve the increasing development needs of the country. Had these dividends not been exempted, the total dividend would have reached P36.45 billion.

Dominguez commended the Department’s efforts, led by Undersecretary Antonette Tionko of the DOF’s Corporate Affairs Group (CAG), to aggressively promote financial discipline among GOCCs.

“For CAG. we are pleased to report that our dividend collections has hit P30.4 billion, up from last year’s P27.6 billion. And that is excluding the Landbank dividends of P6 billion,” Tionko informed Dominguez at a recent DOF Executive Committee meeting.

According to Tionko, dividend collections totaling P30.45 billion last year came from 53 GOCCs, including the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which had not remitted dividends for the past four years, but has now emerged as one of the biggest dividend contributors.

CAAP, which remitted a total of P5.39 billion to the Treasury, was able to collect nearly P6 billion from Philippine Airlines in October last year, after President Duterte ordered the Department of Transportation not to extend the deadline it had given to the flag carrier to pay its long-overdue navigational fees and other charges.

Besides CAAP, among the other biggest dividend contributors were the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) with P7.46 billion; Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), P2.51 billion; Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), P2.22 billion; Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), P1.95 billion; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), P1.84 billion; National Power Corp. (NPC), P1.39 billion; Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), P1.18 billion; and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), P923.60 million.

Among the other GOCCs that remitted to the National Treasury were the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) with P622.91 million; PNOC Exploration Corporation, P519.42 million; Clark Development Corporation (CDC), P500 million; National Development Company (NDC), P428.19 million; Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), P323.76 million; Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), P319.08 million; Cebu Port Authority, P294.69 million; Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), P240.59 million; Metropolitan Waterworks & Sewerage System (MWSS), P232.63 million; and Philippine Leisure and Retirement Authority, P210.44 million.

The other GOCCs which remitted less than P200 million but more than P100 million in 2017 were the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority, National Housing Authority (NHA), National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC), Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), Home Guaranty Corporation (HGC), and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

Those which remitted less than P100 million but more than P50 million were the PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority, Food Terminal Inc. (FTI), Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), National Electrification Administration (NEA), and the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA).

Contributing dividends of less than P50 million but more than P10 million were the LBP Leasing Corporation, Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), LBP Insurance Brokerage Inc. National Livelihood Dev’t Corp (Livecor), Apo Production Unit, Inc., LBP Resources and Development Corp (LBRDC), Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), Philippine Postal Corporation, and Masaganang Sakahan Inc..

The DBP Leasing Corporation, DBP Data Center, Inc., GY Real Estate Inc., Small Business Guarantee Finance Corporation., Partido Development Administration, Batangas Land Company, Inc., Alabang Sto. Tomas Development Inc., Philippine Mining Dev’t Corporation, and Kamayan Realty Corporation, all remitted less than P10 million.

The Philippine Sugar Corporation was only able to remit P800,oo0 while the Pinagkaisa Realty Corp. turned over dividends totaling P340,000.

One third of the 2017 remittances corresponds to collection of dividends in arrears of some GOCCs such as PDIC, CAAP, SBMA and NPC.