PCSO wants to continue charity services

PCSO wants to extend charity services to more individuals this year as the agency projects its funding for individual assistance, institutional assistance and other medical and social programs to hit P9 billion.
    
At the presentation of the agency’s plans and directions for 2016 before the House committee on appropriations Tuesday, PCSO General Manager Ferdinand Rojas II said the charity fund of the PCSO usually represents 20% of the agency’s operating budget for the whole year.
    
Rojas told the appropriations committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Rep. Isidro T. Ungab that their operating budget for 2015 is expected to hit P36 billion, of which about P9 billion or 20 percent will be for charity programs and projects.
    
Ungab, inquired how much is the total PCSO funding for medical assistance which includes medicines, medical equipment, hospital assistance, among others. The lawmaker proposed that all medical assistance to patients in need and other individuals be consolidated into one program to eliminate leakages.
    
He also said aside from charity funds from the PCSO, there are also medical assistance funds coming from the proceeds of the Sin Tax Law, allotment to the Department of Health (DOH) for assistance to specialty hospitals and state universities and colleges (SUCs) with hospitals, among others. There are also assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), lawmakers, and local government officials, according to Ungab.
    
“It would be a very good program to consolidate all these medical assistance into one to eliminate leakages. We should make a study on this,” cited Ungab.
    
The PCSO is the principal government agency mandated to raise and provide funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.
    
The five charity services of PCSO are: individual assistance in the form of Individual Medical Assistance Program (IMAP) and Endowment Fund Program; institutional assistance in the form of financial assistance to institutional partners who are the regular beneficiaries, facilities upgrading, medicine donation and medical equipment donation; special projects; community outreach programs; and mandated contributions.
    
The IMAP include requests for: hospitalization; dialysis;  medicines; chemotherapy drugs; laboratory/diagnostic procedures; and wheelchair, hearing aid, implant/prosthesis.
    
the IMAP fund has reached P18.5 million daily, a big jump from the P4 million daily funding in 2010. The IMAP services include: out-patient consultation; medicine donation; ambulance conduction of indigent patients; assistance for victims of calamities and national emergencies; patient assistance through Endowment Funds with hospitals.
    
The Endowment Fund Program provides financial grant to hospitals, health care facilities, government and non-government organizations (NGOs). For 2015, P110.4 million have so far been released to 52 government hospitals.
    
Meanwhile, the Institutional Program (IP) of the PCSO provides financial grants to orphanages, home for the aged, homes for street children, and the like. In 2015, P19.68 million has so far been allotted to 20 facilities.
    
The PCSO gaming revenues from Lotto, Lotto Express, Digit Games, Instant Tickets and Mini-Sweepstakes  reached P167.429 billion covering the period 2010 to June 2015. It also posted a P4.7 billion Small Town Lottery (STL) revenue from 2006 to July 2015.