Well,
yes and no.
Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office Chairman Erineo "Ayong" Maliksi disclosed
recently that the revenue-generating agency is running out of funds
intended to provide financial assistance to indigent Filipinos.
Did
that mean that he inherited a bankrupt agency?
Not
really.
It
seems that at least 13 laws mandate the PCSO to provide mandatory contribution
to different government agencies. Reports indicate that just recently, the PCSO released P100 million to the Commission
on Higher Education as its mandatory contribution to that agency.
The
basic mission of the PCSO, however, is to generate funds for health programs
and national charities through sweepstakes, races, lotteries and other
fund-raising schemes.
Thus,
for the PCSO give part of its funds for other government programs and projects
is really to abandon its core function of helping the poor and the needy.
Albay
Gov. Joey Salceda is one public official who's aghast at Maliksi's shocking
revelation.
“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 (in its charter) sports assistance and even traffic assistance,” he
fumed.
What
the PCSO chairman should probably do is to go to Congress and urge lawmakers to
repeal the laws earmarking PCSO funds to other government offices.
This
would put the PCSO recover from financial hemorrhage that now prevent it from
extending financial assistance to poor and low-income Filipinos who are sick
and need urgent medical attention.
The
PCSO earns millions from sweepstakes, lotto, small-town lottery and other games
of chance. But this money should go exclusively to helping the poor, not to putting
up basketball courts or paying the salaries of traffic aides.
* * *
Image by PCSO
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