PCSO: Partners to get ‘good housekeeping’ lessons

PCSO Chairperson Margarita Juico. FILE PHOTO

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Monday said it would not abandon its charity partners but would give them lessons in “good housekeeping.”

PCSO Chairperson Margarita Juico said the agency was now looking at ways to make the liquidation process easier for institutions that may not have adequate accounting backgrounds.

“We understand that some of our charitable institutions are from the religious, so maybe the nuns or other religious are not familiar with the liquidation process,” she said

Juico issued the statement in a press conference in Quezon City, following reports that some of the 115 institutions receiving funds from the PCSO’s endowment program did not properly liquidate the money.

The PCSO chair reiterated that the agency did not delist any charitable organization and that what it was doing was reviewing the use of its funds.

She said the agency learned that some of the funds given to charitable groups were used for administrative expenses instead of for health care or direct charity work to poor recipients. This was contrary to stipulations of the grants.

“We will be sitting down with these organizations to hear their side and to listen to their explanations,” Juico said.

The PCSO said it was also considering giving seminars on accounting to teach the charitable groups how to “properly liquidate” the funds which should be allocated for medical purposes.

According to PCSO board member Aleta Tolentino, some of the groups had not submitted their reports  dating back to 2002.

Special projects department officer in charge Jose Bernardo Gochoco said that  of the 115 groups, 26 had not liquidated their expenses totaling P11 million. He did not name these groups.

“We’d rather not mention the 26… most of them are from the religious, or NGOs with a good track record,” he said.

The PCSO’s earlier announcement that it would stop funding charities that did not properly spend or liquidate their funds had led to fears that many charitable projects would have to end.

In Tacloban City, The Ladies of Charity Home for the Aged, which opened in 1975 and serves 20 elderly clients, said it would have to stop accepting new clients if the PCSO cuts its funding.

The charity received P100,000 in financial assistance from the PCSO last year, said its president, Teresita Agoncillo.

But Caritas Manila, the charity arm of the Archdiocese of Manila, said it had decided to stop seeking grants from the PCSO.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, who chairs the Catholic Church’s lead agency for charity services, said that following the “Pajero” controversy, the bishops had agreed not to seek PCSO’s help anymore.

The Church, which is publicly against gambling,  had apologized earlier for its involvement in a fund scandal that included seven bishops who received vehicles or funds from the PCSO.

Anyone seeking assistance beyond the Catholic Church’s financial capacity would be endorsed straight to the PCSO, Rosales said.

Caritas Manila executive director Anton Pascual defended the Church’s charity arm, saying that all the grants it received from the government agency in the previous years had been properly accounted and audited “with full transparency.” With reports from Joey Gabieta,Inquirer Visayas; and Jocelyn Uy