The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) yesterday expressed its intention to hold on to its 60-percent share in charity funds to bankroll its own programs and maintain its work as a charity service provider.
At a Senate hearing presided over by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, PCSO Chair Jose Jorge Corpuz expressed apprehensions about a proposed measure that seeks to update and fortify its charter to make it more accountable.
The measure also seeks to limit PCSO’s discretion in the distribution of funds, but Corpuz said this might eliminate avenues where people could seek medical assistance.
In 2010, the PCSO said it had served 71,212 individuals. This number tripled to almost 250,000 in 2015 and more than 319,000 last year, the agency added.
Under Senate Bill No. 1470 creating the Philippine Charity Office, 30 percent of the agency’s revenue from the sale of tickets for lotteries, sweepstakes and other similar activities will go to the charity fund, which will be divided accordingly for health care or medical programs and services.
The bill stated that 75 percent of the charity fund will be earmarked for the state-run PhilHealth’s medical assistance to indigents and low-income individuals.
The other 15 percent will go to public hospitals, rural health care units and other public health care facilities, including the purchase of ambulances.
Eight percent of the charity fund shall be deposited to the Department of Health for free distribution of medicine and medical equipment such as wheelchairs; one percent to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and another one percent to the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
Sharing scheme
Corpuz suggested a 60-40 sharing scheme—the PCSO retains 60 percent of the charity fund for its institutional programs and the other 40 percent for various agencies as enumerated in the proposed measure.
“We want to retain that because for the past years, the PCSO has been known as a charity service provider. With this proposed bill, the concept will be erased, the people will no longer have an avenue to seek medical help,” he said.
But according to Lacson, this will not happen since the measure will make it more convenient for indigent patients to seek help directly from PCSO desks to be established in hospitals.
“It’s a matter of disseminating information properly that they don’t need to endure long lines at the PCSO offices because they can go straight to the hospital and there’s a PCSO desk there that will attend to them,” said the senator, who authored the bill.