PCSO chief assails fund ‘misuse,’ not ‘abuse’

PCSO Chairperson Margarita Juico. FILE PHOTO

“If I had known you would be reprinting (Manuel) Morato’s column and put the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in a bad light, I should not have given you time.”

PCSO Chairperson Margarita Juico sent this text message Sunday, apparently unhappy with the inclusion of the former PCSO head’s tirades against her in the Inquirer banner story on the alleged PCSO fund misuse by over 100 charitable institutions nationwide.

For about a year now, the PCSO has stopped providing more than P116 million in monthly or quarterly financial assistance to the institutions, some of which are attached to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Health.

“I never said they abused … Now these NGOs are angry!” Juico said.

Earlier in a phone interview, Juico said that instead of using PCSO aid for the purchase of much-needed medicines, health-care products and food items, “the funds went instead to administrative expenses.”

“They used PCSO financial assistance on salaries of personnel, electricity and water bills, gasoline and transportation expenses, among others. They should have spent them on health and nutrition-related items,” she said.

Juico said the agency had no choice but to stop financial assistance to the erring institutions. “A lot more people are in need of PCSO help … A lot more people are knocking at our door,” she said.

She said the charitable  institutions were “under evaluation” and might be included again in its list of regular beneficiaries.

Morato earlier criticized Juico’s policies.

“At the PCSO, when an institution is considered under study or under evaluation, it means its financial allocation has been canceled,” he said.

“What Margie Juico and company are doing is very, very cruel,” Morato said in a statement.

“Thousands of young orphans and abandoned children, aged, blind and other disabled people confined in these institutions are now without help and no one to run to. It’s outright cruelty to disadvantaged members of our society. She has no remorse whatsoever in hurting disadvantaged people.”

Morato assailed what he called the PCSO’s “selective assistance” program, the topic of his recent column in a tabloid.

“Charitable institutions that the past administrations helped are no longer extended assistance. It is now very obvious that only those favored and are known to be supporters (of President Aquino) in the last election are given preference, together with patients referred by friends of the administration and by their political allies,” he said.

He cited the case of Hospicio de San Jose in Manila, which “used to receive P2.4 million a year. Today, it gets zero allocation from the PCSO.”

Other institutions which suffered the same fate include the Philippine National Red Cross, Quezon Institute, National Center for Mental Health, Caritas Manila, Don Bosco Youth Center, Nutrition Center of the Philippines, Elsie Gaches Village, Marilac Hills and Tahanang Walang Hagdanan.