The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Friday asked the House of Representatives to review the laws requiring the agency to give mandatory contributions to certain government instrumentalities, saying some of these payments are not even health-related.
PCSO legislative liaison officer Gay Alvor said several laws are currently in place providing for the mandatory contribution of the agency to other government offices.
In addition, Alvor said the PCSO is also required to provide support to the Malasakit Centers, among other entities.
“We are appealing to Congress to consider our situation, because the needs of Malasakit Centers are expanding together with that of the Universal Health Care, but there are many other mandatory contributions that have to be paid,” said Alvor, a lawyer.
“For example, we give to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and some of these mandatary contributions are not even health related,” she added.
PCSO is required by 15 laws to provide mandatory contributions to other government agencies. For instance, Republic Act 6847 requires the lottery agency to allot six sweepstakes draws as contribution to the PSC, while RA 7722 mandates that 1 percent of lotto gross sales are allotted to the CHED.
Executive Order 218 also provides a P1-billion standby fund for the operations and programs of the PDEA.
“These special laws have been enacted way before the current Congress, and so we appeal to the current Congress to take time to review these mandatory contributions,” Alvor said.
Alvor said PCSO would like to focus on non-COVID-19 related illnesses, as instructed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We are too focused on COVID, but it is not even the (greatest) number of causes of mortality. The common ailments are still there,” Alvor said.
“PCSO wants to focus on these, but we cannot move because of the confluence of laws that requires the agency to provide funds to certain agencies,” she added.