Palace: No need to abolish PCSO, Pagcor

Manila, Philippines - Malacañang sees no reason to abolish the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) amid controversies of fund misuse.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a press briefing in Malacañang yesterday that the administration would make sure that funds would be used prudently and properly so they would be beneficial to the needy.

The call for the abolition of the government’s legitimate gambling institutions came as their funds were allegedly being used for political rather than charitable purposes.

“Maybe in the past, but not now,” Valte said.

Valte also said the Palace would still have to look into the proposal to privatize the PCSO.

She said the recommendation to shut down PCSO and Pagcor could be a “major reaction” because of reports of fund misuse.

“But I hope that we will not forget that the real mandate of these two agencies, especially the PCSO, is to provide medical assistance to those in need. Maybe it’s better to put in place systemic reforms first and see whether these systemic reforms will work before we talk about what really should be done to the agencies,” Valte said.

Valte also said PCSO chair Margie Juico had denied the claims of former PCSO chairman and director Manuel Morato that she also used P24 million in PR funds.

“First things first. Chairman Juico has already denied these allegations. And that came from chairman Juico herself. And second, it’s very interesting to note that during the three-hour hearing in the Senate, former chairman Morato did not see it fit to mention this allegation during the Senate hearing. But on his own – whatever his motives would be – mentioned it after when he was talking to reporters and he was not under oath,” Valte said.

Valte said the current PCSO board “is very conscientious of the money that they have” because “they know that their debt is huge and secondly, they are certain of the mandate of the agency they are running.”

“The mandate of the PCSO is to run the sweepstakes and lotto and that is for us, for assistance to the poor… They will do everything to uphold that mandate,” Valte said.

Valte said the PCSO must take its mandate to heart and enforce the rules on giving donations, particularly ambulances.

She said the local governments were required to pay for 40 percent of the price of ambulances while the PCSO would shoulder 60 percent.

Valte said a mechanism was being put in place to determine which localities were really in need of these ambulances.

Privatization

Meantime, Sen. Franklin Drilon said yesterday that the operation of PCSO and Pagcor should be privatized.

Instead of the government performing the task of operating lotteries and casinos, Drilon said that it should just limit itself to being the regulator of these operations while receiving guaranteed annual franchise fees.

“I am calling for the immediate privatization of the operations of PCSO and Pagcor so that these allegations of misuse of funds and resources can be avoided,” Drilon said.

“The government only becomes a regulatory agency. The government should not be directly involved in gambling operations. Leave that to the franchisee. The franchise holder will pay a definite amount to the government not based on sales but on the amount of the bid. That is the fee regardless or whether or not the franchise holder makes money,” he added.

According to Drilon, the fees paid by the private franchisee would go directly to the National Treasury, which could then be appropriated to the sectors that need the funds the most, such as medical and health care for the poor.

One of the suggestions that came out during the hearings on the PCSO fund was that the agency’s revenues should go to the Department of Health or the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) so that the necessary medical assistance could be delivered to the poor.

Drilon said that the privatization could be done right away because of the enactment of Republic Act 10149 or the Government Owned and Controlled Corporations Governance Act of 2011.

The law provides for the creation of a Governance Commission on GOCCs (GCG) which would be tasked to evaluate the operations of all GOCCs and determine which of these are performing, underperforming, losing money, not fulfilling their mandates or have already outlived their mandates.

Drilon said that the GCG could recommend to the President the abolition, merger or privatization of GOCCs after its evaluation.

It was recently revealed that the previous administration allegedly misused the funds of the PCSO, which should have gone to charity work, particularly medical assistance to the poor, but were used for other purposes not covered by the mandate of the agency.

Drilon said the present setup where Pagcor serves as both the licensor and operator of casinos was anomalous and created conflict of interest.

He noted that in other areas with big casino operations such as Las Vegas and Macau, the government agency concerned only issues the necessary licenses and regulates the gambling operations.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, also noted that there was an overspending of the charity fund of PCSO which, coupled with the indiscriminate use of the intelligence funds, led to the accumulation of debt by the PCSO to as much as P4 billion. – With Marvin Sy