By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 26, 2010
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang justified yesterday its decision to return the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to the Office of the President (OP) as it vowed to protect the integrity of the agency.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the PCSO had always been an attached agency of the OP because of its complementary concerns such as charity and games of chance.
“Only (former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) played around with the PCSO, transferring it to the (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and then (the Department of Health),” Lacierda said. “PCSO is governed by a board and attachment (to the Office of the President) is only for coordination. Attachment is logical because of coordination with such OP functions as the (Presidential Social Fund),” Lacierda said.
Lacierda also said the Aquino administration was bent on protecting the agency from anomalies.
“This is all about statistics and probabilities. How come it’s only now that the pot has gone up this much?” Lacierda said in a telephone interview.
“We are wondering why the pot never reached this much since the history of lotto,” Lacierda added.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said they acted on the request of PCSO chair Margarita Juico to put the agency back to OP.
Ochoa said it would not be proper to speculate that the agency was being used for money laundering and that the lottery itself was being rigged in favor of those in power.
“Looking for anomalies is not easy. When accusing that there is an anomalous transaction, especially in government, documents are very, very important as evidence or indications of any anomalous transactions. It really takes time, if something could be found, then that’s it. But if there’s really none, (we have to accept it) right?” Ochoa said. “Circumspection is the name of the game because we don’t want to accuse people in public if you are not ready to support or back it up with a real case to be filed,” Ochoa told reporters in a press briefing in Malacañang.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. welcomed the move of President Aquino to directly place under his supervision the PCSO that would make efforts to help beneficiaries more efficient and transparent.
Belmonte said whether the PCSO is under the Department of Health or any other agency, it is still the Office of the President that is calling the shots in the agency.
“At the end of the day, it’s the President who is in charge of the PCSO so it was good (that Aquino placed the agency under his supervision),” he said.
He said the Arroyo administration might have found it convenient to put the PCSO, nominally, under an agency like the DOH or the Department of Social Welfare and Development, so that Malacañang would have someone to blame for any mistake in the operations of the charity agency.
“Now it’s clearer who is responsible (for the PCSO),” Belmonte said.
While the reported P7.8-billion fund handled by the PCSO can be considered as the Palace’s pork barrel funds, he was sure Aquino would not abuse the funds.
“It (PCSO funds) can be used as anything since time immemorial. It’s up to the President. I believe this President will not abuse it,” Belmonte said.
He also supported the proposal of Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone to put a cap on the jackpot of the lotto games at half a billion pesos.
An official of the PCSO disclosed yesterday that the jackpot of the 6/55 Grand Lotto online lottery draw could breach P1 billion if nobody gets to win the next draw on Saturday.
Arnel Casas, PCSO operations manager, told The STAR that the jackpot of the Grand Lotto could hit P685 million in tomorrow’s draw and if nobody gets the combination the jackpot would be more than P1 billion next week.
The winning combination 04-41-40-55-42-45 in last Wednesday’s draw carried the jackpot of P633,911,065.20. With Paolo Romero, Perseus Echeminada
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