THE board of directors of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) approved on June 22 the requests of six more hospitals to be partners of the agency for the PCSO At Source Ang Processing (ASAP) Program.
This brings to 37 the number of hospitals around the country working with the PCSO to bring the agency’s services closer to its clients. Of the 31 hospitals currently providing ASAP services, 25 are in Metro Manila and six are in the provinces.
The PCSO’s new partner-hospitals are the Philippine General Hospital, Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, JP Sioson General Hospital and Colleges Inc., Medical Center Manila and Mother Teresa of Calcutta Medical Center.
ASAP partners undertake to establish and maintain a PCSO Desk, which will be manned by a social worker or other personnel of the hospital trained by the PCSO on how to evaluate requests for assistance under the PCSO’s Individual Medical Assistance Program. Now, patients or their family and friends can submit their requests directly to the PCSO Desk at partner hospitals; they no longer need to go to PCSO offices for this purpose.
The six additional hospitals to the ASAP Program will still have to prepare for the implementation of the program on their premises, and we look forward to their participation and sharing in our work of extending charity services to our kababayan.
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There are few institutions as important in Philippine art history as the Saturday Group. Founded in 1968, the Saturday Group is comparable to other prolific artist groups, such as Eduouard Manet’s bohemes that met at the Café Guerboi in 19th-century Paris, or the Cedar Bar Group of New York in the 1950s that had the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.
The Saturday Group attracted an entire generation of artists to Ermita’s Tazo de Oro Restaurant—artists, such as National Artists H.R. Ocampo, Cesar Legaspi, BenCab and Ang Kiukok. But beyond the likes of Onib Olmedo, Justin Nuyda, Agustin Goy and Juvenal Sanso (whenever he was in town from Paris), the Saturday Group also appealed to writers and curators—including Lorna Montilla, Lily Amansec, Rod Paras-Perez and Leo Baesa.
Currently, the Saturday Group still holds regular sessions at Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City, under its president, artist Migs Villanueva. The venue was the site of their 48th anniversary exhibition, Dimensions: 48 Years of the Saturday Group, held from July 18 to 24.
Villanueva employed a multi-dimensional approach for this exhibit, and divided members into four groups, each led by past Saturday Group Presidents Lydia Velasco, Buds Convocar, Anna De Leon, and herself.
Each group was challenged to create individual works, as well as a collaborative piece. Our particular group—“SG Gruppo Dos”—with Anna de Leon, Aner Sebastian, Roel Obemio, Inna Vitasa, Daisy Carlos, Carlo Ongchangco and myself—adopted the theme “Life is a Circus”. Thus, our works vibrated with kinetic energy, lights and color, with unusual artworks, such as Sliders made of painted puzzle pieces that can be moved up, down and sideways; a mobile of butterflies; a rocking horse; and cabinets that open to reveal masks
and figurines.
The Saturday Group continues to blaze a trail in visual art, particularly with the members’ penchant for creating collaborative works, and future exhibits will surely regale art lovers with fresh and innovative pieces.
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Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
1 comment
Hi Atty.Rojas, this is great news. When will the ASAP PCSO desk be implemented in Makati Medical Center?