Staff mandate could lower bids
The employment note said the asset-sale structure means a buyer would not automatically inherit Casino Filipino’s employees or any employment-related claims. Staff who cannot be redeployed within PAGCOR would be separated from the state-owned corporation unless the buyer agrees — or is required under the bidding terms — to hire them.
Geronimo Law set out three possible routes for affected workers: redeployment within PAGCOR, absorption by the buyer, or separation with retirement and special separation packages. But any absorption requirement would bind a buyer only if written into the bidding terms and the asset purchase agreement.
Absorbed employees would enter a new employment relationship with the private operator, with their length of service generally restarting from the hiring date — though the sale agreement could still require the buyer to assume obligations tied to earlier tenure. Bidders would likely deduct any such liabilities from their offers ‘peso for peso’, the firm said, and could resist taking on workers they consider unnecessary.
‘Expect bidders to resist an absorption mandate,’ Geronimo Law said.
Hiring, it added, would be selective: dealers, surveillance officers and slot technicians could be favored because trained gaming personnel remain scarce. Employees who are neither absorbed nor redeployed would stay PAGCOR’s responsibility, their separation governed by civil service rules.
The proposed privatization remains under review by the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GCG). PAGCOR is targeting completion of the decoupling — its shift to a regulator-only role — by late 2026 or early 2027, subject to the commission’s review and final action by the Office of the President.
Dingnews.com 28/07/2026