The Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GCG) celebrates a decade of changing government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to be more helpful in addressing people's needs and helping the economy grow this pandemic.

GCG, a strong partner in good governance is celebrating its 10th founding anniversary on June 30. GCG is the central advisory, monitoring, and oversight body authorized to formulate, implement, and coordinate policies for GOCCs.

GCG strategy

GCG works to attain the vision for the whole GOCC sector to be 'more responsive to the needs of public interest and in the attainment of enhanced economic growth and development.'

It aims for a transparent, economically viable and service-oriented GOCCs to bring social impact. It implements a compensation framework that attracts and retains the best and the brightest for the GOCC sector. It rationalizes the GOCC sector and promote participatory governance through the Integrated Corporate Reporting System (ICRS).

GCG raises corporate governance to international standards, enhancing competitive neutrality, intensify performance monitoring, and institutionalize the whistleblowing policy.

The themes were citizen-centered development and participatory governance.

The objective is a step towards changing the GOCC sector into a tool for citizen-centered development and engaging the public in the process of creating policies for providing quality programs and services for the Filipinos.

'The organization is supported by efficient internal processes to effectively perform its mandate and to beneficially deliver services that will impact its stakeholders. By doing all these, the Governance Commission hopes that it will have a more transparent, economically viable, and service-oriented GOCC sector,' GCG said.

Billionaire's Club

There were seven GOCCs in the list of prestigious 'Billionaire's Club,' or those that remit at least P1 billion to the national government In 2019, the top 10 remitting GOCCs were Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.(Pagcor) with P16.17 billion, up 524 percent from P2.593 billion in 2018; Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC), with P10.582 billion, up 20 percent year-on year from P8.844 billion; Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) remitted P3.515 billion, up by 13 percent from P3.103 billion; Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) with P3.508 billion, which dropped by 44 percent; Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) with P3.423 billion, up 52 percent; Land Bank of the Philippines, P1.96 billion; National Power Corp. (NPC), with P1.436 billion, up 2 percent; Clark Development Corp. (CDC) P815.77 million, up 17 percent; Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) with P744.23 million, 71 percent lower than the P2.535 billion in 2018 and PNOC Exploration Corp. (PNOC EC) with P699.22 million, up by 15 percent. The total GOCC sector remitted P46.997 billion, 33 percent higher than P35.411 billion, a year ago.

GOCC accomplishments

GOCCs made significant contributions during the pre-pandemic times by providing reliable and accessible financial system, expanded social protection, accessible and secured shelter, improved water

accessibility, reliable electricity, improved accessibility and mobility in trade and tourism, world class tourism, accelerated growth through regional development, competitive and sustainable food production.

In the financial system, the total loan portfolio for infrastructure and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) provided by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) amounted to P236.3 billion in 2019 while Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) had P236.45 billion total loan for agriculture and fisheries sector.

Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) expanded the social protection and made a collection efficiency rate of 78.77 percent.

The Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG)'s net income has consistently increased from P30.27 billion in 2017, P33.17 billion in 2018 and P34.37 billion in 2019. There were 2.5 million Pag-IBIG members availing short-term loans. Pag-IBIG granted housing loans amounting to P86.74 billion and the number of houses financed reached 95,276.

For expanded social protection, the Social Security System (SSS) contribution collections reached P220.38 billion and it has released benefits worth P196.76 billion. The percentage of paying members over labor force was 45.96 percent in 2019.

Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) granted loans worth P265.09 billion The percentage of social insurance claims and benefits processed within turn-around time is 98.11 percent.

The accessible and secured shelter is the top priority of ordinary Filipinos, as well as water and electricity. They need housing programs that are most receptive to the needs of the low-income group in the country.

The National Housing Authority (NHA) reported that the number of housing units completed for informal settler families living along dangerous areas and those displaced due to calamities was 42,946 in 2019, which was higher than 13,587 in 2018.

The Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC) said 31,903 informal settler families were provided with housing finance. It also provided housing assistance to informal settler families through the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) and High-Density Housing Program (HDHP).

The National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) said the value of funds provided to originators to be recycled to housing through securitization was P2.186 billion. The purchase of housing receivables improved the liquidity of financial institutions and developers, enabling them to engage in more social housing projects The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) said the percentage of operational water districts (WD) with the capacity to supply water 24/7 was 74.02 percent in 2019. There were 4.762 million households outside Metro Manila who were served with individual water connections.

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has completed and energized 38,326 sitio projects. The National Power Corp. (NPC)'s availability of power supply in far-flung areas was 75.27 percent, while the power outage rate was 0.05 percent, higher than 0.02 percent a year ago.

The GOCCs performed well in improving accessibility and mobility in trade and tourism. The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), PPA, Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) saw increased cargo volume and passenger traffic.

The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) said international tourism arrivals from 12 key markets and overseas Filipino markets also increased in 2019.

The industry gross gaming revenue amounted to P256.49 billion, according to the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and its total contributions to the national government rose to P72.22 billion.

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)'s gross revenue reached P44.028 billion, lower compared to P63.56 billion in 2018.

In accelerating growth through regional development, the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) generated 13,538 jobs in the Clark Freeport Zone (CFZ) with total new committed investments of $191.19 million.

John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) said 6,597 jobs were generated in the John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ) with gross sales of business enterprises amounting to P1.096 billion.

The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) reported that there were 2.296 million subsistence farmers enrolled in crop protection. The raw sugar production and sugarcane yield was 53.13 percent, a decline from 57.05 percent, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA). The lower production in 2019 is attributed to the El Niño phenomenon experienced during the crop year.

GCG reinforces high standards of governance across the GOCCs. It checks GOCCs' policies and practices in terms of stakeholder relationships, disclosure and transparency, and responsibilities of the board.GOCCs which adhere to the principles yield a good corporate governance score. The output of the CGS is called the CGS score. This is an indicator of the GOCCs' level of adherence to international best practices.

GCG Chairman Samuel Dagpin Jr. said GCG continues to intensify its performance monitoring strategy. 'The assessment allows the agency to validate the reported attainment of a GOCC and gather valuable inputs to set appropriate performance target for the succeeding year. Aside from carrying out its mandates, the Governance Commission further solidifies its role as a partner of good governance.'