“I’m here not as an obstructionist but a team player.”
This was the message of Anselmo Simeon Patron Pinili, newly appointed chairman of the board of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office amid the continuing vilification campaign in the media against the PCSO leadership.
Pinili is a retired police general of the Philippine National Police and a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Matikas” Class 1983.
President Rodrigo Duterte appointed him as PCSO chairman after retired police general Jose Jorge Elizalde Corpuz resigned due to health reasons.
During a flag raising, Pinili said he and PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan would bring the agency “to greater heights.”
“GM Alex Balutan is my classmate and I know he means business so I know PCSO is in good hands,” he said in a statement released later.
“Don’t be mad or feel slighted if I have a strong voice, my wife said I naturally have a strong and high- pitched voice, that is my normal tone,” he told employees during the flag-raising ceremony.
“I hope everyone keeps supporting PCSO and let’s try to make PCSO grow and be an office of the people.”
Pinili said one of his priorities was to improve and enhance the delivery of quality service to patients.
“I’m really sad when somebody [patient] complains at the Lung Center of the Philippines. The poor are outside of the building in a hot area waiting to be called, while the rich and privileged are waiting inside an air-conditioned room. I hope these concerns could be addressed by our office. It is the desire of our President to make a government for the poor,” he said.
He added: “We are here to extend help, I hope our AGMs could look into this so that we could be closer to the people. A patient remembers even just a single smile and that patient would treasure that smile and will never forget this simple gesture,” he said.
Pinili recalled the President’s speech during an oath of office ceremony at the Palace on Dec. 6, 2017.
“It was about the painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. The painting took the artist Leonardo six long years to complete. When he was about to paint his subjects, he looked for a picture of Jesus Christ in Google, everyone laughs. So, he hired this model who looked like Jesus and painted the apostles/disciples, but couldn’t finish it because he had no photo of Judas Escariot,” he said.
“For six long years he labored to find the exact image and then he found one at last. So, he hired this particular model and then began to paint the face of Judas. After Leonardo finished his painting the model revealed that he was the same model he hired six years ago as the face of Jesus Christ,” the chairman added with a smile.
Pinili reiterated that every PCSO employee must be a team player who could effectively deliver the best services of PCSO to the Filipino people specially the poor.
“Help me to be good and I told the GM here that our office can never be ridiculed or questioned as to our integrity and credibility especially in our lottery games,” he said.