Mini-PCSO opens in Zambales

 

PCSO officials turn over a check worth P693,507.34 to Olongapo City Mayor James L. Gordon. L-R: PCSO  North and Central Luzon Lottery Sector department manager Josefina Sarsonas, Online Lottery sector  assistant general manager for operations Remeliza Gabuyo, general manager Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II, and director Ma. Aleta Tolentino. ( Photo by JOSEPH MUEGO)

 

To make its medical and health-related services accessible to as many as Filipinos as possible, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office opened a branch office in Zambales over the weekend.

The new branch is located at Barangay Pagasa, Olongapo City. It will provide all services offered by the state-owned agency, from charity services to releasing of prize claims.  It will also absorb the existing PCSO office in Bataan.

It has a budget of P 1.2 million a month for individual medical assistance such as hospitalization, dialysis, and chemotherapy, among others.

Lotto winners may claim prizes here of five thousand pesos to three hundred thousand pesos. Larger prizes are to be claimed at the PCSO head office in Pasay City.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by PCSO director Aleta Tolentino, general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, assistant general manager of operations for online lottery sector Remeliza Jovita Gabuyo, and North and Central Luzon lottery sector manager Josefina Sarsonas.  

Also present were Olongapo City officials headed by Mayor James Gordon Jr.

Tolentino said that the opening of a new branch is in line with President Aquino’s wish of cascading PCSO services to hard-to-access areas, especially where medical assistance is much needed.

“We are putting up sub-offices so that patients will no longer have go to Manila and ask assistance from PCSO. Kami na ang lalapit sa inyo,” said Tolentino.

This is the third branch office PCSO has opened so far this year. Branches were inaugurated in Cagayan Province and Samar earlier.

For his part, Rojas asked the public to help the needy nationwide by supporting PCSO games.  “We can’t help anyone without your help”, he said.

There are 38 lotto agents in Zambales, and 37 in Bataan.  The budget of the new branch, aside from what the PCSO main office provides, will depend in the sales of these outlets. 

Capping the ceremony was the awarding of P693, 000.00 to Olongapo City as the local government unit’s share of the charity fund for July to December last year. ***