COTABATO CITY – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) donated 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 regional government is thankful for the PCSO’s Ambulance Donation Program, adding, “the ambulance service will allow recipient municipalities to better respond to health and other humanitarian emergencies.” The ambulances were received on Wednesday in Cotabato City.
She said the vehicles would be distributed to the municipalities of Matanog, Barira, Paglat, Sultan Mastura, Datu Hoffer and Ampatuan, all in Maguindanao province. And Bacolod-Kalawi in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Sulu provinces.
Alamia also congratulated the 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 donated a total of 1,503 ambulance units to beneficiaries that included different local governments, hospitals, health institutions, state universities and other government agencies.
He said the PCSO allotted about P37.4-billion in funds for its ambulance donation program in 2015 and this was further increased to some P40-billion in the first quarter of 2016. Balutan said the amount of each ambulance unit is about P800,000 and were all purchased from the proceeds of the PCSO’s responsible gaming services that include the expanded Small Town Lottery, 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-fortunate in the region with the help of the ARMM government. (Bureau of Public Information)
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