The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes (PCSO) celebrates its 77th anniversary this year—nearly eight decades of raising funds for charity.

On September 8, the day we marked this milestone, we successfully accomplished the transfer of our Charity Clinic and Fund Allocation departments to their new home at the Radiotherapy Building of the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City.

The two core service departments were transferred to make them more accessible to beneficiaries, as well as make use of more spacious surroundings, with the PCSO occupying the building’s first and third floors. Trees provide shade and ventilation, while a capacious waiting shed on the ground floor is being renovated for the convenience and comfort of those seeking assistance. 

The Charity Clinic, with its complement of physicians, nurses and other health-care staff, is involved in direct patient care, medical-mission work and other services, such as ambulance emergency conduction.

Fund Allocation processes patients’ requests for medical and health care-related assistance—hospitalization, dialysis, chemodrugs, prosthetics and many more.

Kudos go to the staff of the Charity Clinic—headed by Dr. Elisa Baroque—and Fund Allocation—headed by Dr. Larry Cedro—who worked overtime to accomplish the move in the soonest possible time and with the least disruption of services.

We also thank Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista for previously accommodating us at the Quezon City Hall, and the management of the Lung Center for giving us a new home.

Further, the PCSO plans to set up sub-offices in all provinces by 2016, especially in remote and underserved areas, in line with President Aquino’s policy of quality health care for all Filipinos.

The PCSO also launched another traditional sweepstakes event. Called the “People Power Sweepstakes Draw,” it will be held on February 26 next year. With the success of last December’s Ephpheta Sweepstakes to benefit the blind, and the sold-out “Freedom Draw” on August 21, the PCSO Board has realized that the traditional sweepstakes still has appeal to players. It also benefits the elderly, retired and handicapped, as well as others, who can sell tickets.

Also last anniversary day, the PCSO signed an agreement with the Tzu Chi Foundation, a charitable organization that has been recognized this year for its efforts by Congress and the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Through Tzu Chi, the PCSO can reach out to more of the marginalized around the country.

The PCSO looks forward to more years of service to our fellow Filipinos.

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The PCSO is part of the “social infrastructure” mechanisms that deliver social welfare, health care, education, employment and community development. Let’s take a look at what else government has achieved lately in terms of health care and education.

Over at PhilHealth, they recently launched its private-public partnership programs, in support of the Department of Health’s (DOH) agenda of Kalusugan Pangkalahatan.

According to Health Secretary Dr. Enrique T. Ona, “The National Health Insurance Law mandates that each and everyone—rich or poor—must be members of PhilHealth. That is why we are hell-bent in achieving universal coverage in three years.”

Kalusugan Pangkalahatan is the “health reform agenda” of the DOH. Its main aim is “…to provide financial risk protection for all Filipinos, especially the poor, by ensuring universal PhilHealth coverage and improving the benefits of PhilHealth. The PPP initiatives are designed to help PhilHealth encourage more and more people to become part of PhilHealth and to assist PhilHealth in improving its services for its members. All of these will be at no cost to [PhilHealth].”

Implementation starts in Metro Manila on September 12, in Luzon on September 19, the Visayas on September 26, and Mindanao on October 3. The SM Malls chain and CIS Bayad Centers will provide more than 1,300 PhilHealth registration sites. Globe and Smart telecommunications will “provide marketing support to inform the public about PhilHealth offerings and benefits through their mobile phones.” Other private establishments—pharmacies, optical shops and more—will offer discounts to PhilHealth members.

In education, one constraint that needs to be overcome is the lack of classrooms, especially outside Metro Manila. Education is the bedrock of society, and a good education with proper values formation is essential to bring about the kind of society our country needs to take its place among the developed nations of the world. More classrooms, enough to fill the gap, can bring about positive solutions to this problem.

I’ve written about this twice before in July, in connection with Ms. Pinky Aquino-Abellada’s (President Aquino’s sister) AGAPP Foundation and the Department of Education’s Adopt-A-School program. Both organizations partner with public agencies (notably Pagcor) and private entities in pursuit of their corporate-responsibility programs by facilitating the building of classrooms in the provinces.

This time, it’s the provincial government of Ilocos Norte that partnered with the DepEd through a counter-parting agreement to build 44 classrooms in Paoay.

Apart from Ilocos Norte, eight other provincial and nine city governments have signed agreements with the DepEd to build 1,347 new classrooms, bringing to P616 million the total local government unit share. Adding in the DepEd’s counterpart share, the fund’s total amounts to P1.129 billion.

Early this year the DepEd, under Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro, signed memoranda of agreement with the League of Cities, League of Municipalities, League of Provinces of the Philippines, and the Department of Budget of Management to implement the classroom-construction counterparting program.

The DBM’s role is monitoring and check-and-balance—helping the DepEd identify appropriate funding sources and facilitating the release of the allotment once the documentary requirements are complete. The DBM’s involvement in the process ensures the proper spending of public funds.

It was the DBM also that recently released P3.07 billion to the DepEd for the construction and repair of school buildings and the installation and upgrading of sanitary facilities in schools all over the country.

Of this amount, P646 million will go to schools in the National Capital Region, which have acute classroom shortages; P346 million to Region 4-A; and P245 million to Region 6.

An estimated total of 6,676 classrooms will be rehabilitated, along with the repair or installation of toilets in 3,274 schools.

This latest release of funds brings to P10.09 billion so far disbursed from the Basic Educational Facilities Fund for the year, from the total P11.3 billion. This is in line with the President’s commitment to “close the supply gap in much-needed learning facilities,” according to Budget Secretary
Florencio B. Abad.

Investing in health care and education is an investment in the Filipino people, the assets of our country. The Aquino administration has set these two areas among its priorities for
development.

Atty. Rojas is the general manager of the PCSO. Comments? E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .