Government officials and employees have been banned from playing and staying in casinos after president Rodrigo Duterte ordered Andrea Domingo, recently appointed head of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) to implement Presidential Decree No. 1067-B.The decree was originally issued by former president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, who was considered to run the country under martial law for nearly a decade, and who oversaw the national debt of the country soar from €2 billion to nearly €30 billion during the course of his presidency.
Measly income
According to a transcript of Duterte’s speech translated by the news agency, the president said:“I do not want people in the government entering the casino. You are in the government with a measly income and yet you’ll be seen in a casino?” 
He went on to explain that he would also be banning any family members of these government employees, as well as anybody under 21, and students attending any school, college, or university in the country.
Strict implementation
Despite the decree having been in place for some time, prominent government officials have been allowed to frequent casinos in the past. Former Land Transportation Office Chief Virgie Torres and former president Joseph Estrada were known to be in casinos in the country in 2013 and 1996 respectively. Mere hours after being sworn in as the 16th President of the Philippines, Duterte vowed to put an end to the proliferation of online gambling in the Philippines.He went on to explain that he would soon be ordering Andrea Domingo, who he himself selected to the CEO position at PAGCOR, to rescind existing online gambling licenses, citing the difficulty in taxing online gambling as his reason. Duterte has, as yet, given no timeframe for these plans.