GMA orders PCSO to scrap ticket increase

President Arroyo has ordered the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to scrap its planned 100-percent increase in lotto ticket prices from P10 to P20, a Malacañang official said yesterday.

Presidential Management Staff Director General Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo instructed him to relay her order to PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte on Thursday night.

“The President believes that such increase is not needed,” Remonde said.

The PCSO, which is under the Office of the President, earlier announced the increase will take effect on Aug. 15. The announcement, however, was met with sadness by many lotto players, many of whom are poor people hoping to at a chance to be a multi-millionaire.

PCSO officials said the increase in ticket prices would also result in a corresponding increase in prizes.

Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo did not give any reason for her order.

Government believes stopping the increase in lotto ticket prices would prevent many players, especially in the provinces, from engaging in jueteng, an illegal numbers game that is now on the decline.

The PCSO, created in 1934, is the principal government agency responsible for raising and providing funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character, according to its information sheet.

“The PCSO holds and conducts charity sweepstakes, races, and lotteries and engages in health and welfare-related investments, projects, and activities to provide for permanent and continuing sources of funds for its programs. It also undertakes other activities to enhance and expand such fund-generating operations as well as strengthen the agency’s fund-management capabilities,” it said.

The main products of the PCSO are the sweepstakes and the lottery games.

The main programs of the agency are endowment fund/quality health care program, individual medical assistance program, community outreach program, ambulance donation program, national calamity and disaster program, and hospital renovation and improvement of health care facilities.

The agency also makes mandatory contributions to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter and Urban Development Financing Program (CISUDFP), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Philippine Centennial Commission (PCC), Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), and the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) as well as regular quarterly and monthly contributions to charitable institutions engaged in giving welfare services to children and youth who are either abandoned or exploited, the elderly, and the physically and mentally handicapped, among others.– Paolo Romero