AS the Senate starts to deliberate on the proposed revisions on the Universal Health Care (UHC), we hope the senators will listen to the pleas of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for a 60-40 deal with the charity fund distribution, and not the initial proposal to remove the whole CF from PCSO.
For everyone’s information, the gross sales of PCSO from its lottery products, such as Lotto, Sweepstakes and Small Town Lottery, go to the following: 55 percent goes to the Prize Fund, 15 percent goes to the agency’s Operating Fund (OF), and the remaining 30 percent goes to the CF.
Apparently, the withholding tax being paid to the Bureau of Internal Revenue also comes from the CF, or what the PCSO calls Documentary Stamp Tax. However, the agency had to pay an additional 20 percent because of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law.
This is the reason Lotto ticket prices also increased from P20 to P24. The same goes with Sweepstakes prices, from P5 to P6, and the jackpot prizes from P10,000 above are now taxable.
Lotto players should not blame the Lotto price increase on the PCSO.
One good thing, though, is the fact that while taxes continue to increase, which affected the Lotto and other games, PCSO sales still continue to increase. From January to August this year, the agency generated P35.9 billion in revenues, which is still in line with PCSO’s target of P55 billion to P60 billion total sales for 2018.
Unfortunately, with the thrust to simplify the medical assistance by the government for hospitalization, chemotherapy and dialysis treatments, implant and transplant, and many others, the PCSO’s role in dispensing funds to patients will be removed from the agency.
On the other hand, this is good because patients won’t have to endure the inconvenience of lining up to submit documents to support their request for assistance and receive Guarantee Letters.
Under a revised UHC, there will be no more queues at the PCSO and no more GLs. No more Individual Medical Assistance Program (Imap)—the PCSO’s flagship projec—probably including Asap (At-Source-Ang-Processing) desks in partner-hospitals. According to a source, this includes the removal of Endowment Funds from PCSO, which will be downloaded to PhilHealth.
Going back to the CF that will be revised in the Senate, PCSO’s CF is divided into two: 60 percent of which is for Imap and other charity programs, such as Ambulance Donation, Calamity Assistance, Medical and Dental Mission, and others; while 40 percent is for mandatory contributions—which is covered by Republic Act and Executive Orders—of PCSO to almost 28 government agencies like the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philippine Sports Commission, Commission on Higher Education, among many others.
The 40 percent mandatory contribution won’t stop unless repealed by the Congress.
But here’s the thing, the remaining 60 percent is still being debated in the Senate, and this is the 60 percent of PCSO and 40 percent of PhilHealth I’m talking about.
If you will ask Sen. JV Ejercito, he will listen to the pleas of PCSO because he said the agency has many programs that need funding. Ejercito is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography.
Sen. Ejercito is right, let’s not remove the entire charity fund from PCSO or dissolve the entire Charity Assistance Department with almost 200 employees. Where will these employees get sustenance for their respective families if we render them jobless?
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