PCSO chief’s driver gets P2-M aid

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office chairman Ayong Maliksi is in hot water after a group accused him of releasing P2 million in PCSO funds as medical assistance to his personal driver, who is suffering from a heart problem.

Maliksi himself allegedly facilitated the release of the money to benefit Celestino Ama, who was confined at the Philippine Heart Center (PHC), the Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment (FATE) claimed.

Ama received the benefits 10 months after his employer was appointed by President Aquino to head the PCSO and barely two months after Maliksi denounced the alleged special treatment of certain patients, FATE president Joy Castro said.

Maliksi earlier said that rich and unqualified patients received more benefits than others from the PCSO while the truly poor patients are often forced to wait in line for days just to receive small amounts of money.

He claimed that patients who got at least P100,000 in assistance were confined at “expensive” hospitals while patients confined in public hospitals received only a fraction of that amount.

Castro called on PHC to shed light into Ama’s confinement after an unidentified doctor said Ama was indeed confined at the hospital.

“We were informed that he was the driver of the PCSO chairman,” Castro quoted the doctor as saying.

Playing by the rules

According to the PCSO regulations, any Filipino patient can get medical assistance from the PCSO but the agency’s socio-economic status evaluation determines how much assistance will be granted to each individual.

The only exceptions are maternity cases unless there are complications in labor and delivery; individuals undergoing treatment for substance abuse; and requests for reimbursement of payments.

The PCSO denied accusations that those who have connections receive more help from the agency, saying that the assistance is always based on the socio-economic evaluation of each patient using a classification system to determine the maximum allowable amount that can be granted, which covers a certain percentage of the net bill.

The PCSO charity sector department said the patients or their relatives select the hospital, not the PCSO.

The agency, it said, has assisted a considerable number of patients from government hospitals such as the National Kidney and Transplant Institute and East Avenue Medical Center.

The STAR tried but failed to get Maliksi’s comment on the issue.