Alejandro Tengco

Alejandro Tengco moved from a private-sector career in construction and telecommunications into one of the Philippines' most politically sensitive jobs in gaming, overseeing the country's exit from the offshore gaming business that had become a major part of its industry after 2016.

Tengco currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the state agency that regulates gambling in the Philippines.

Under his watch, PAGCOR has begun restructuring from a hybrid regulator-operator, aiming to achieve a primarily oversight role. The regulator expects a decision soon on its proposal to separate its regulatory and commercial functions. As of now, it still operates its Casino Filipino properties and branches, which it aims to privatize. Thus, the regulator currently faces a potential conflict by regulating an industry in which it also operates.

Up until recently, the Philippine gaming market was one of the fastest-growing in Asia, with industry-wide gross gaming revenue climbing from roughly PHP 214bn ($3.41bn) in 2022 to a record PHP 396bn in 2025. The trend reversed in 2026, with GGR falling 20.3% year-on-year to PHP 88.13bn in Q2 2026. The result extends the market's contraction into a second consecutive quarter. First-quarter GGR fell 15.87% to PHP 87.60bn. The Middle East crisis and stricter gambling regulations weighed on sector revenues.

Tengco's appointment coincides with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s six-year term, running through June 2028.

Who is Alejandro Tengco?

Tengco is a Manila-based businessman and former local government official who spent roughly three decades in construction, telecommunications and food and real estate businesses before entering government service. Born in 1960, alongside his corporate career, he ran a portfolio of family businesses.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed him to head PAGCOR in August 2022, succeeding Andrea Domingo, and he has since become the public face of the Philippines' crackdown on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

Education

Tengco attended Ateneo de Manila University from grade school through university and earned a degree in business management in 1982.

He went on to pursue a law degree at Ateneo Law School until 1984, though he did not go on to practice law, moving instead into local politics and the family business. Since taking on the PAGCOR chairmanship, he has supplemented that early training with governance-focused coursework aimed at executives of state-owned corporations, including certification in basic corporate governance for boards of government-owned and controlled corporations and training on the country's newly revised government procurement law.

Career journey

In the late 1980s, Tengco served as Vice Mayor of Malolos, Bulacan, from 1988 to 1992. He then joined the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), starting as an executive assistant before rising to responsibilities in PLDT's government affairs group, a role he held until 2004.

Alongside that corporate career, Tengco ran a cluster of smaller family enterprises reflecting his family's long-standing interests in Bulacan, including Malolos Food Corporation and Multi Kitchen. He moved more fully into construction as COO of JBROS Construction from 2007 to 2014. He also led World Hub Services Corporation as managing director from 2011 to 2016.

From 2015 to 2022, he served as President and CEO of Nationstar Development Corporation, the family-owned construction firm involved in the renovation of Manila's National Museum of Natural History, before stepping down to take up the PAGCOR chairmanship in August 2022. He has said he transferred his shares in Nationstar to his children around 2019, ahead of his move into government.

Key achievements

The Philippine gaming market has expanded sharply during Tengco's earlier tenure: industry-wide gross gaming revenue grew from PHP 214bn in 2022 to roughly PHP 396bn in 2025. Electronic and online gaming overtook land-based casinos as the industry's largest segment in 2025.

This was prior to the already mentioned economic and regulatory pressures that recently reversed this trend.

His most consequential achievement has been executing the phase-out of POGOs. There were 298 licensed POGOs during the previous administration; PAGCOR had already begun revoking licenses tied to scam operations, cutting the number to 43 by mid-2024. President Marcos ordered a total ban in July 2024, and PAGCOR cancelled the remaining licenses by December 31, 2024. The ban was later codified through the October 2025 Anti-POGO Act.

Tengco was named Executive of the Year at the Global Gaming Awards Asia-Pacific 2024, ahead of runner-up Hubert Wang of MGM China, and received the inaugural Regulatory Landmark Award at the Asia Gaming Awards 2025 in Manila for PAGCOR's regulatory and institutional reforms.

Leadership style

Tengco has described his approach at PAGCOR as focused on transparency, institutional reform and accountability.

He has been particularly prominent in pushing PAGCOR toward compliance with the POGO ban despite the agency's own earlier estimate that a full ban could affect more than 31,000 Filipino workers directly employed by legal POGOs.

That same assertiveness has surfaced in how he handles internal controversy: in 2024, he publicly alleged that a former senior government official had sought to facilitate licences for POGO operators later linked to illegal activity, and said he would name the individual "in the proper forum." Accepting his 2024 Executive of the Year award, he said the recognition "validated the efforts we have been putting in."