Those lines in Lotto booths may be long but it may be worth the try. We all want to win that huge amount of prize we can get. By doing nothing but choosing some couple of numbers, we could win millions. And the prizes at stake recently reached its historic peak lately. People got giddy. Those lines got longer more easily.
But while the PCSO may be spending more and more for rewarding people who are doing nothing, the same office is recently diminishing its funds for its main purpose: charity.
After watching Krusada on ABS-CBN last week where they featured the little kids of Child Haus, I prayed fervently to the Lord and asked for guidance and light on what I could do for these little kids.
Staying on a charitable institution (Child Haus) is the only thing these children can do to satisfy their need for shelter with the little money they have while paying huge medical bills that are difficult to cover. They are temporarily staying in this shelter while being healed from the sicknesses they have.
Yet Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has given them a 2-month notice to leave the building and to look for another one as it preterminates its contract with Philippine Tuberculosis Society, Inc. (PTSI). PCSO, as provided for by a republic act, is mandated to fund charitable institutions such as Child Haus. But recently, PCSO has been decreasing its funds for charity purposes.
But what is really weird, which is something that I don’t understand, is the recent amounts of money being declared by PCSO as sweepstakes prizes over the recent weeks and months. Ginormous – one word to describe the sweepstakes prizes.
A media woman once asked the Malacanan spokesperson in a Press Conference on NBN if the winning amount in Lotto is too high, the spokesperson just said wittily, “Ayaw mo n’yan, mataas ang mapapanalunan mo...”
While the PCSO slowly diminishes its funds for charitable institutions, it speedily increases its sweepstakes prizes, and preterminates a contract with PTSI to the prejudice of the little children of Child Haus. I am wondering where they are really heading now...
The lives of these children are at stake. With poverty and sickness, it is easy to cry for them and feel their remorse.
The ginormous amount of the winning prize may only help one person amongst the 90 million Filipinos but in my humble opinion, it is way too high a prize for the PCSO to pay. Not only will a material amount of Gov’t money be spent elsewhere (probably like imported products, tours outside the country, etc. by any winning person), the same amount of money could have been used for social welfare that is much needed by the lowly people, such as those who are being served by charitable institutions.
It would have been acceptable on my part if the recent increases in prizes at stake are moved by the purpose of funding charitable institutions but the recent acts by PCSO such as decreasing funds for charity seem to utter otherwise.
Those little kids in Child Haus, whose families have meagre money to pay medical bills, let alone consultation fees made me cry so hard for their sufferings. A child with brain cancer while his father is in prison and a child with hydrocephalus are some of the kids currently living in Child Haus. Yet in the minds of us Filipinos, these kids are no longer uncommon. There are plenty of them, who very much need the financial support of PCSO, which is now ironically spending a lot for prizes at stake while diminishing funds for charity.
Will the PCSO continue its recent acts? I hope not. These kids deserve much more. Please, PCSO, spend more for charity. After all, it is your namesake...
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