THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) welcomed last Wednesday as its new chairman former Cavite Rep. Erineo S. Maliksi.
Maliksi, appointed by President Aquino on April 17, will serve up to June 30 this year the unexpired term of former PCSO Chairman Margarita P. Juico, who resigned from the agency for personal reasons in May 2014.
With his experience in administration and policy-making, Chairman Maliksi is sure to be an asset to the PCSO.
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ALSO last Wednesday, the PCSO signed an agreement with St. Luke’s Hospital for the At Source ang Processing (Asap) program, wherein a PCSO desk will be placed in the hospital for the convenience of patients who may wish to avail themselves of PCSO assistance.
I’ve discussed this concept in previous columns, and I am happy to report that it is finally going to be implemented. Other hospitals have also expressed their willingness to be part of the PCSO-Asap, and we welcome more participants in this program that will extend the PCSO’s reach to the public it serves.
Under the PCSO-Asap, patients or their loved ones may have their requests for PCSO assistance processed right at the hospital’s PCSO desk, which will be manned by a social worker trained by the PCSO. This means would-be beneficiaries no longer have to go to a PCSO office to file their requests, saving them time, effort and resources.
This brings PCSO services right to its clientele, and we are optimistic about this program’s
viability and success, given that its hallmarks are ease, convenience and speed.
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DIRECTORS and managers of the PCSO Manila head office were in Davao City last Saturday for a gathering to mark the agency’s
80th anniversary.
The PCSO celebrated the landmark occasion in Manila last
October, attended by officials and employees from Manila and the branch managers from all over the country. Obviously, because of budget constraints, not all the employees nationwide were able to come to Manila.
To make the celebration more inclusive, it was decided to hold the 80th anniversary gatherings this year in the regions: Northern and Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Bicol, the Visayas,
and Mindanao.
The PCSO has departments named for each of these four regions under its Branch Operations Sector, and these departments run the PCSO branch offices in those areas.
The gathering last Saturday was for the Mindanao region. In attendance were the PCSO board of directors, including newly appointed Chairman Maliksi; directors Betty B. Nantes, Mabel V. Mamba, Francisco G. Joaquin III and Florencio G. Noel; and myself as vice chairman and general manager.
The PCSO Mindanao Department is headed by Mario S. Pelisco. Under his supervision are eight managers and their branches: lawyer Ravena Joy Rama-Patalinghug in Davao City; Misael Hamak in Agusan del Norte; Divina Salvacion in Bukidnon; Raul Regondola in Misamis Oriental; lawyer Elvie Uy in South Cotabato; Michele Ryan Mendoza in Surigao del Norte; Analisa Narciso in Zamboanga
del Norte and Gloria Ybañez in
Zamboanga del Sur.
The PCSO now has 44 branches nationwide, from an initial 25 in 2010, when the current board of directors assumed office. The agency will be opening more branches up to 2016, toward the goal of establishing a branch office in each province.
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ALSO, while in Davao City last Saturday, we turned over two ambulances: one each to Davao City and the municipality of
San Francisco, Agusan del Sur,
under the PCSO Ambulance Donation program.
The program aims to equip cities and municipalities with ambulances and rescue vehicles. First-to third-class municipalities may obtain a PCSO ambulance once every five years under a 60-40 cost-sharing scheme, while fourth-to sixth-class municipalities may receive them as outright donations.
Such vehicles are vital to the operations of municipal health offices and district hospitals, especially those in remote areas. The speedy transport of a patient to a hospital can spell the difference between life and death, especially in severe cases.
The public can help support the PCSO-Asap, ambulance donation and other programs by buying Lotto tickets and playing the PCSO’s other games. The agency funds its programs with revenues raised from game operations, and the higher the revenues, the more funds there will be for charitable endeavors that are of great benefit to Filipinos.
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Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II is the vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.