Having Your Cake And Eating It Too

Got a good chuckle reading the Inquirer article about what our lawmakers think of Ramon Ang’s offer to buy Pagcor for $10B. Specifically this one:

“Sen. Edgardo Angara is also backing Ang’s proposal as long as the government continues to get its share of Pagcor’s annual gross revenues, which last year reached P29 billion.”

Damn! The government gets $10B, its share of the revenues, and its tax collections!

And also this one also from the same article:

“Sen. Miguel Zubiri said that the government’s take from the casino operations could come in the form of franchise fees. “It’s a huge amount of money without the headaches and the charges of corruption,” said Zubiri.

Annual revenues of P29 billion doesn’t look nearly enough to justify a $10B valuation and probably already includes revenues from the lucrative franchising operation that is part of what Ang wants to buy!