Cotabato City – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has donated a total of 8 ambulances to different municipalities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to help improve health service in the region.
Atty. Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary, said the ARMM government is thankful for the PCSO’s Ambulance Donation Program and the ambulance service will allow recipient municipalities to better respond to health and other humanitarian emergencies.
The official turnover of the ambulances were held Wednesday at the region’s seat in Cotabato City.
The following are the recipients of the ambulance units:
• Matanog, Maguindanao
• Barira, Maguindanao
• Paglat, Maguindanao
• Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao
• Datu Hoffer, Ampatuan, Maguindanao
• Bacolod-Kalawi, Lanao del Sur
• Basilan Gen, Hospital, Isabela City, Basilan
• Sulu Sanitarium Jolo, Sulu
Alamia congratulated the local government units (LGUs) for qualifying as recipients and for showing not just “the need for ambulance in your municipalities but also the capacity of the local government units to utilize and maintain the ambulance.”
PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said that as of November 2016, the PCSO has donated a total of 1,503 ambulance units to beneficiaries that include different LGUs, hospitals, health institutions, state universities and other government agencies.
He said the PCSO has allotted about P37.4-billion funds for its ambulance donation program in 2015 and the allocation was increased to approximately P40-billion in the first quarter of 2016.
Balutan said the amount of each ambulance unit is approximately P800,000.00 and the funds for its acquisition come from the PCSO’s responsible gaming services that include the expanded Small Town Lottery (STL), Lotto, Keno, and Sweepstakes.
The PCSO’s small town lottery, he said, is the only legal and authorized numbers game nationwide and it aims to support charitable deeds for the benefits of the people nationwide.
Balutan said the PCSO is eager to do more for the less-fortunates in the region with the help of the ARMM government. (Bureau of Public Information)
