PCSO asks P-Noy to certify as urgent bill limiting congressional funds for charity

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Erineo Maliksi has asked President Aquino to certify as urgent a bill that proposes to limit the congressional earmarking of charity funds for non-medical assistance.

Maliksi said mandatory contributions, specified in at least 13 laws, are depleting the charity funds and depriving patients seeking financial assistance for medical purposes at the PCSO offices in the Lung Center of the Philippines and other regional sites.

“People line up as early as 3 a.m. at the Lung Center just to get (financial assistance for) medical and other health (concerns),” he added.

In a previous statement, he was also quoted as saying that the issuance of the letter of guarantee to the people who lined up for financial assistance has become more like that of “issuing post-dated checks.”

Maliksi earlier admitted that the PCSO fund is fast running out as it is earmarked for national agencies like the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), which recently received its P100-million allotment.

But in a recent Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum in Luneta Hotel, Maliksi said the PCSO charter provides that the charity fund generated from its games and lotteries is intended for medical and health-related assistance to the poor and the needy.

However, Congress has allowed the earmarking of these funds for other purposes, including those given to national government agencies.

Maliksi said the PCSO will submit to Malacañang a draft bill to limit these fund allocations or earmarking, hoping the Palace will certify it as urgent.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda earlier lamented the current PCSO fund depletion, saying the charitable institution should refocus its mandate back to providing financial assistance to indigent Filipinos.

“The PCSO is overburdened and overloaded with mandatory obligations from all sorts of laws. The true PCSO mandate is individual medical assistance – it does not state there sports assistance and even traffic assistance,” he was earlier quoted saying.

The PCSO mission is to generate funds for health programs and national charities through sweepstakes, races, lotteries and other similar fund-raising system.

Meanwhile, the Albay provincial government has donated a 150-square-meter lot to PCSO-Bicol as a way of repaying the agency’s donation of 35 ambulances to the province over the weekend.

Salceda said the ambulances enabled the province to achieve early its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in terms of lowering maternal mortality from 224 to only 33.

“Ambulances play a critical role in saving mothers’ lives by bringing them fast to the nearest clinic or hospital where skilled nurses and doctors are found,” he added.