The PCSO also allocates and donates to local government
units a 5 percent share from the total sales of on-line lottery (lotto) outlets
operating within their jurisdictions, including of the documentary stamp tax for
the said donation.
This program is a joint undertaking of the three most important
health-financing agencies of the government, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
(PhilHealth), and local government units (LGU). At the outset, the PCSO GMA Program
is aimed at assisting the enrollment of 539,670 indigent families in PhilHealth’s
Medicare para sa Masa program. For the initial implementation of the program,
the PCSO has allocated some P67 million as its counterpart funding for the LGU share.
As a government sector agency-member of the National Anti-Poverty
Commission (NAPC), under the Basic Services for Human Development cluster, the PCSO
has, as its contribution to the Poverty Alleviation Program of the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration, donated medicines and provided financial assistance, conducted medical
and dental missions, and provided tetra-pack milk during the Milk Feeding Programs
in various KALAHI communities nationwide.
As their response to the commitment made by President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her 2001 State of the Nation Address to make medicines
more affordable to the general masses, the PCSO, Department of Health (DOH), Philippine
International Trading Corporation (PITC), and the National Food Authority (NFA),
have come together to jointly implement the government’s low-cost medicine program
dubbed as “Gamot na Mabisa at Abot-Kaya (GMA 50) Project”.
The Center for Life Improvement and Health Development (C.H.I.L.D)
House Project for children and young adults who are afflicted with cancer and/or
other dreaded diseases, is a multifaceted health and social development undertaking
of the Ricky Reyes Foundation, an NGO, PCSO, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority
(MMDA), Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC), Philippine Tuberculosis
Society-Quezon Institute (PTS-QI), and various specialty hospitals and medical facilities,
with the goal of “lessening the burden of the immediate families of people with
cancer and/or other dreaded disease/s, by knowing that there is a place where they
can temporarily stay while their loved one is undergoing treatment.” An oversight
committee led by Presidential Daughter Ms. Luli Macapagal Arroyo as chairman, was
formed to administer the period.
This project is aimed at establishing “emergency centers”
at select provincial hospitals in strategic areas nationwide. A joint project of
PCSO and DOH which aims set up emergency service facilities in 10 strategically
located hospital-beneficiaries nationwide.
The PCSO, in accordance with the National Housing Authority,
allots funding for socialized housing projects for poor families in various areas
nationwide, as mandated under Republic Act No. 7835, also known as the “Comprehensive
and Integrated Shelter Financing Act of 1994” (CISFA).