P-NOY TAKES OVER PCSO / PALACE TO PROTECT PCSO INTEGRITY
[PHOTO AT LEFT - Inmates at the Makati City jail hold up betting forms as the lotto fever continues to spread. The jackpot for the 6/55 Grand Lotto has reached P620 million. JONJON VICENCIO | MANILA, Philippines]
MANILA, NOVEMBER 26, 2010 (STAR) By Delon Porcalla – President Aquino yesterday took back control and supervision of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from the Department of Health, which was the arrangement during the time of his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Under Executive Order 14, Aquino said there is a "need of placing back to OP (Office of the President) the control and supervision over PCSO" to "ensure the effective implementation of his social agenda, and to effectively facilitate as well the health services and charity programs" of his office.
"One of the main objectives of the OP is to enhance the health services and charity programs to the public as well as to immediately respond to calamities, disaster relief and emerging illnesses," a portion of the order read.
This developed as the jackpot for the 6/55 Grand Lotto on-line lottery draw of the PCSO last night reached more than P600 million, the biggest jackpot in the country's lotto history.
In the single-page order, Aquino said that he has the power to transfer functions of line agencies by virtue of the Administrative Code of 1987, which authorizes the President to "transfer agencies to the OP from other departments or agencies."
Arroyo, who is now a Pampanga congresswoman, issued in November 2004 Executive Order 383, transferring PCSO's jurisdiction to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and in August 2005 EO 455 that transferred this over to the health department.
Under PCSO's original charter (RA 1169), however, such power belonged to the OP.
PCSO, which takes charge of the country's lotto operations, is the principal government agency in charge of raising and providing funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.
With the official transfer, the direct control and supervision over the PCSO is automatically transferred from the Department of Health to the OP.
PCSO website temporary shut down
The official website of the PCSO www. pcso.gov.ph had temporarily shut down since last week after the agency transferred to a new office building, even as bettors trying to access the PCSO website increased since the jackpot of the 6/55 Grand Lotto on-line lottery draw breached P500 million.
In a notice to the public, the PCSO said the agency's website that releases lotto draw results on the Internet and also provides email service will temporarily be offline due to the transfer of the PCSO MIS Data Center to their new office at the Philippine International Convention Center, CCP Complex in Pasay City.
PCSO officials, however, assured the public that the nationwide lotto network that connects all lotto terminals to the PCSO main office is not affected and is operating normally.
People trying to access the official PCSO website to get the results of the Grand Lotto draw have increased since the jackpot breached half a billion pesos.
"We shall try our best to make the lotto game results search engine, IMAP follow-up and email service online return to normal as soon as possible when our Data Center is fully operational in our new office at the PICC," the statement said.
The website also releases the lotto draw results, including the number of winners of each of the various lotto draws.
PCSO sources said more bettors have placed their bets for the Grand Lotto draw last night after the jackpot was estimated to hit P620 million after nobody got the winning combination 22-25-17-50-19-37 in last Monday's Grand Lotto draw with a jackpot of P584, 899, 925.20.
The jackpot of the Grand Lotto last night was the biggest in the history of the PCSO's on-line lottery that has triggered a nationwide frenzy, with more people joining the long lines at lotto outlets nationwide.
The winner of the Grand Lotto could take home the full amount of the over P600-million jackpot tax free, a PCSO official said.
"If you win you can get your winnings to the last centavo," the source said.
PCSO chairman Margie Juico said in a recent television interview that they are planning to pay in installment the jackpot prize.
Lotto players have opposed the proposal of Juico.
The Grand Lotto draw is now the most popular in the country since the on-line lottery game was launchedin 1995. The other lotto games include the Regular Lotto 6/42, Mega Lotto 6/45, Super Lotto 6/49, and the EZ2 games.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone filed a resolution directing the House committee on games and amusements to investigate "the rationale of the system, play rules and conduct of the mega lotto draws, and its widespread effect on people to compulsively play the game, and recommend appropriate legislation."
"The unimaginable jackpot prize and wide media coverage have resulted in record number of people playing the mega-lotto," Evardone said.
"Widespread compulsion to play, including people who normally would not engage in gambling, tends to run counter to the PCSO vision to uplift the quality of life of the Filipino people."
He said not one ticket sold has matched the winning number combination after 83 lottery draws, with almost every possible pick of number combination being sold.
"It appears that, at any given draw, people are now compulsively playing a game in which the winning number combination may be 'unachievable'," he said.
Evardone said the PCSO should explain how this no-winner phenomenon has come about.
The PCSO must disclose the total amount of revenue generated by ticket sales, he said.
"The PCSO must set a limit to the jackpot prize at stake at a maximum amount, say P500 million, and if such maximum amount is not won or forfeited, it must be donated to orphanages and charitable institutions," Evardone said.
House Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, however, did not agree with the proposal to put a cap on the jackpot.
"The higher (the prize), the better. I think it's not just the prize, it's the excitement," Suarez said, as he admitted he has been playing the lotto in the last two weeks. With Paolo Romero, Perseus Echeminada
Palace to protect PCSO integrity By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 26, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (0)
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang justified yesterday its decision to return the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to the Office of the President (OP) as it vowed to protect the integrity of the agency.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the PCSO had always been an attached agency of the OP because of its complementary concerns such as charity and games of chance.
"Only (former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) played around with the PCSO, transferring it to the (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and then (the Department of Health)," Lacierda said. "PCSO is governed by a board and attachment (to the Office of the President) is only for coordination. Attachment is logical because of coordination with such OP functions as the (Presidential Social Fund)," Lacierda said.
Lacierda also said the Aquino administration was bent on protecting the agency from anomalies.
"This is all about statistics and probabilities. How come it's only now that the pot has gone up this much?" Lacierda said in a telephone interview.
"We are wondering why the pot never reached this much since the history of lotto," Lacierda added.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said they acted on the request of PCSO chair Margarita Juico to put the agency back to OP.
Ochoa said it would not be proper to speculate that the agency was being used for money laundering and that the lottery itself was being rigged in favor of those in power.
"Looking for anomalies is not easy. When accusing that there is an anomalous transaction, especially in government, documents are very, very important as evidence or indications of any anomalous transactions. It really takes time, if something could be found, then that's it. But if there's really none, (we have to accept it) right?" Ochoa said. "Circumspection is the name of the game because we don't want to accuse people in public if you are not ready to support or back it up with a real case to be filed," Ochoa told reporters in a press briefing in Malacañang.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. welcomed the move of President Aquino to directly place under his supervision the PCSO that would make efforts to help beneficiaries more efficient and transparent.
Belmonte said whether the PCSO is under the Department of Health or any other agency, it is still the Office of the President that is calling the shots in the agency.
"At the end of the day, it's the President who is in charge of the PCSO so it was good (that Aquino placed the agency under his supervision)," he said.
He said the Arroyo administration might have found it convenient to put the PCSO, nominally, under an agency like the DOH or the Department of Social Welfare and Development, so that Malacañang would have someone to blame for any mistake in the operations of the charity agency.
"Now it's clearer who is responsible (for the PCSO)," Belmonte said.
While the reported P7.8-billion fund handled by the PCSO can be considered as the Palace's pork barrel funds, he was sure Aquino would not abuse the funds.
"It (PCSO funds) can be used as anything since time immemorial. It's up to the President. I believe this President will not abuse it," Belmonte said.
He also supported the proposal of Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone to put a cap on the jackpot of the lotto games at half a billion pesos.
An official of the PCSO disclosed yesterday that the jackpot of the 6/55 Grand Lotto online lottery draw could breach P1 billion if nobody gets to win the next draw on Saturday.
Arnel Casas, PCSO operations manager, told The STAR that the jackpot of the Grand Lotto could hit P685 million in tomorrow's draw and if nobody gets the combination the jackpot would be more than P1 billion next week.
The winning combination 04-41-40-55-42-45 in last Wednesday's draw carried the jackpot of P633,911,065.20. With Paolo Romero, Perseus Echeminada
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