Featured image above shows, in no particular order PCSO General Manager Melquiades A. Robles, MMDA Chairman Romando Artes, MMC Chairman/LCP President Francis Javier Zamora (San Juan City mayor), Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto Rubiano, Makati City Mayor Nancy Binay, Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, Mandaluyong City Mayor Marjorie “Menchie” Abalos, Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno, Valenzuela City Mayor Weslie Gatchalian, and others. (Photo: SDN) 

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DIAMOND HOTEL, Manila, December 3, 2025 (SDN) — Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Vice Chairman and General Manager Melquiades “Mel” A. Robles on Tuesday led the ceremonial turnover of Patient Transport Vehicles (PTVs), one each, to the 17 Metro Manila local government units (LGUs).

The distribution, he emphasized, completed the charity agency’s commitment to deliver PTVs or ambulances to all of the Philippines’ 1,642 cities and municipalities, achieving the feat in just three years of the current administration of PCSO Chairman Felix Reyes, a retired judge.

Acknowledging that the Metro Manila LGUs have the financial standing to buy their own PTVs, Robles said “rich or poor have to be provided the vehicle. “We will not achieve 100 percent distribution if we do not given them.”

The PCSO organized the event with the participation of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) headed by Chairman Rolando Artes, as well as with the presence of the 17 Metro Manila mayors or local chief executives (LCEs) or their representatives, for the ceremonial turnover of the PTVs as well as their respective share from the PCSO’s lotto operation revenue.

With Robles from the PCSO were the Board of Directors, including Director Imelda Papin.

Distributing a free ambulance to each of the country’s cities and municipalities has been on day one the avowed commitment of the PCSO under Reyes administration’s and was able to do it halfway to the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. that started on June 30, 2022.

Here are the 17 LGU beneficiaries — 16 cities and one municipality — of the PCSO’s PTVs, a much needed vehicle for transporting patients to hospitals or other medical facilities.

The Metro Manila cities: Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon, Taguig, San Juan, Valenzuela, and the municipality of Pateros.

Robles noted that patients sometimes were brought to hospitals using only “kariton” (cart) as transport vehicle.

“Our hope with the President is to achieve 100 distribution of PTVs,” Robles, also PCSO vice chairman, pointed out.

The PCSO has provided PTVs — every unit has wheelchair, stretcher, and oxygen tank — to the island provinces, including in the BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao). “In fact, just yesterday, we were on Batanes (Island) and completed it (distribution of PTCs).

He said they plan to provide sea ambulances to island provinces next year to make it easier for patients on island LGUs. “Although we are heavily taxed, the PCSO does not back off from helping.”

Where every peso PCSO revenue is being used: 55 percent, Prize Fund; 30 percent, Charity Fund; 15 percent, Operating Fund

“There’s no politics here. The President said we should not politicize aid.”

The charity agency is providing the PTVs at no cost to the LGUs. Presently, each of the PTV is worth Php2.1 million, and the brand is no longer the China-made Foton but a Toyota, the SDN – SciTech & Digital News learned at the turnover event.

In a post-event interview with reporters, the PCSO general manager did not discount the possibility of new rounds of PTV distribution.

“Hopefully, for the next year and coming years we can do another round of this ambulance (distribution) per the President’s directive,” Robles said, saying the President ordered that it should be the government that must come to the people.

Read: PCSO Achieves Milestone as the Country’s Number One GOCC, Receiving Multiple Awards from the GCG

“That’s what we have done, to bring the services of the government to the people in consonance with the Bagong Pilipinas brand,” he said. “If the case is emergency, there should be no downtime in bringing patients to the hospital.”

In the same media interview, both San Juan City Mayor Francis Javier Zamora, who chairs the Metro Manila Council (MMC) and MMDA’s Artes thanked the President and the PCSO for the PTV distribution.

“In the name of the Metro Manila Council and the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), first of all, I’d like to thank President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. because every city and municipality in the country already has a Patient Transport Vehicle,” the San Juan mayor, said. He is the president of the LCP.

“This is a very big help, especially to the cities and municipalities that had no vehicles before. This is a big part of our service to the nation as mayors of the cities and municipalities because if there are patients that need to be brought to the hospital how can we do it if we have no Patient Transport Vehicle.”

The MMDA’s Artes cited the PCSO’s feat in completing the provision of one PTV to each of the nation’s cities and municipalities.

“In just three years, you achieve (your goal) for the more than 1,600 LGUs. That’s a very big achievement and we are thankful for it to GM Robles and the PCSO Board of Directors and (the President) to provide for the people not just here in Metro Manila but all around the country,” said Artes.

The PCSO derives its billions of pesos of assistance to poor Filipinos from the revenue of its various lotteries and games — among them lotto, Small Town Lottery (STL), Keno, Digit lotteries, ScratchIt cards, and Sweepstakes.

For every peso of the charity agency’s revenue, 55 percent go to Prize Fund, 30 percent to Charity Assistance, and 15 percent for Operating Fund. — EDD K. Usman (©)

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (©)