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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech & Digital News
MANDALUYONG CITY (SDN) — Hospital care is truly crucial to saving a patient’s life. Emergency cases have to be attended to by medical professionals as soon as possible. In some cases, each second is a matter of life and death, a second of delay could be catastrophic.
And the only way to do this quickly, especially in the Philippine countryside is through a reliable ambulance service.
Which is what is in the mind of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) — providing two ambulances each for the country’s 1,488 municipalities. That’s the plan by the time President Bongbong Marcos, Jr.’s term concludes from 2022-2028.
PCSO Vice Chairman and General Manager Melquiades Aypa Robles made this assurance in an exclusive meeting with a group of journalists on Tuesday, March 26.
According to the minutes of the PCSO-news media meeting, Robles said that just this period, not even half of the Year of the Wood Dragon, the PCSO has already turned over 1,000 units of ambulance units to various municipalities.
“We turned over 60 ambulances on Monday and on Tuesday,” the PCSO official said. He added the recipient local government units (LGUs) were “so diverse, in different areas because they need (to submit) requirements.”
Distribution or turnover of the medical vehicles is on a “first-come, first-serve” policy, he emphasized.
Robles said the PCSO plan is to provide one ambulance each to every municipality during at least before the end of the administration of Marcos. He revealed each ambulance vehicle costs Php2.2 million.
“We are targeting at least two ambulances for each municipality before the end of the term of President Bongbong Marcos,” said Robles, with a second round of ambulance (turnover).”
PCSO’s plan, he said, includes providing sea ambulances for the country’s island provinces. He said the sea ambulances would be coursed through provincial governments who’ll then do the distribution.
Robles noted that the last PCSO administration distributed only 300 ambulance vehicles but the present leadership under Chairman Nixon Kua already turned over 1,000 units in only the first quarter of the year.
PCSO does not receive funds from National Government
“Our goal is to reach 100 percent distribution so the people will really feel (the difference),” he said.
If the PCSO policy on the distribution of the ambulance vehicles did not change, the charity agency shoulders 60 percent of the cost and 40 percent for the recipients.
All in all, the rough total of 1,488 ambulances cost is just over Php1.63 billion at Php2.2 million each (x2 = Php3.274 billion for twice the price).
The PCSO sustains itself and does not receive even a single centavo of funding from the government. It gets its funding from the revenue of its lotto and other gaming products.
Fifty-five percent of each peso revenue goes to Prize Fund, 30 percent to Charity Fund, and 15 percent to Operating Fund.
Without its revenue from its gaming products, the PCSO will not be able to fund its many programs, projects, and services for indigent Filipinos.
For example, the PCSO’s Medical Access Program (MAP) for the month of December 2023 had already disbursed a total of Php1,851,848,861.46 for 268,538 patient beneficiaries.
The distribution of the MAP assistance covered the National Capital Region (NCR) — Php420,477,355.06 for 31,485 beneficiaries; Northern and Central Luzon — Php448,251,548.19 which went to 62,052; Southern Tagalog and Bicol Region — Php371,111,722.71 given to 74,647; Visayas — Php328,442,150.60 turned over to 54,209; and Mindanao — Php283,566,084.90 for 48, 145.
Among the revenue-generating gaming products of the PCSO are Lotto Games, Small Town Lottery (STL), Digit Games, ScratchIt Cards, Sweepstakes, and others. (♤)