Philippine Charity ‘Sweeped-stakes’

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
4/8/2011



“Charity begins at home,” an old proverb goes; but I don’t think it applies to the current officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). Instead, the new managers from the Yellows are apparently making a clean sweep of the agency’s name literally. In a 56-page exposé, former PCSO chairman Manoling Morato reveals: “From the lobby pa lang, katakot-takot na ang harangan. ‘Yan ang instruction ni Margie (Juico, the new PCSO chairman) and her sons and brothers. They call the shots too. People are afraid of them; and rightly so…”

I wouldn’t take Morato’s word for it had I not known that Juico’s husband, Philip, allegedly has been going around brokering talents for PCSO advertising proposals. It also helped that a former PCSO insider told us that the husband-and-wife team is reportedly brokering for the Ayalas’ takeover of the prime 6.9-hectare lot of Quezon Institute (QI) along E. Rodriguez Ave. that was quickly vacated when Juico transferred the agency’s offices to the PICC last year.

This transfer to the CCP Complex on Roxas Blvd., where there are no direct jeepney or bus rides to the agency’s doorstep, severely limits the access of PCSO’s supposed clientele, the poor and infirm. At its former QI location, rides from Quiapo, Cubao, Caloocan, San Juan, Makati, Marikina, Pasig, and the provinces are easily taken to bring these beneficiaries right up to PCSO’s gates. Besides, since the lease on the QI property is for a good 50 years, it still has 37 years left for which either a penalty has to be paid or it may try to sublease — which is likely where the brokering of the real estate deal comes into the picture.

The QI property was leased by PCSO in 1995, edging out the LRT proposal which would have used it for a train station. Since it was already deemed a perfect site for a commercial center and transport hub back then, it’s no wonder that Ayala and other real estate developers have been eying this property for over a decade now. And since the Ayalas and the Juicos are known to belong to one Yellow family, hands down, it will probably go to the Ayalas this time.

We should also stress that the PCSO leases QI from the Philippine Tuberculosis Society Inc. (PTSI) for P24 million a year with a 5-percent annual increase proviso. This augments the PTSI’s P9-million endowment from various sources, of which its most notable project is the continued operation of the Quezon Institute hospital. It was precisely because of this and PTSI’s other functions that President Manuel Quezon established the PCSO. However, with Juico’s plan, this historical connection among the three will be merely thrown into the dustbin and, from my perspective, another 6.9-hectare green, oxygen breathing lung for Metro Manila will be converted into yet another choking, concrete rat maze.

As Juico is planning to transfer PCSO to Makati, the classic lagaring Hapon where she will likely buy or lease from Ayala or even use it as a pretext for swapping the E. Rodriguez property may set in. Juico claims she is in a hurry to get out of QI because it is already an old and unsafe structure. Really now.

The structures at the QI area were built in 1938 and designed by National Artist, Architect Juan Nakpil. Through the many earthquakes Metro Manila has experienced over the century, it is such old structures that have withstood the test of time. Note the resilience of the University of Santo Tomas main building, Malacañang Palace, the Post Office beside the Pasig River, and many others.

The trouble is, there are elements eyeing big real estate deals that are attempting to deliberately weaken them, such as those in Morato’s report where some contractors were made to dig holes on the QI’s beams and posts; and recently, under Juico, where electrical wirings were pulled out, fuse boxes stripped, toilet bowls and faucets removed, glass partitions and panels cannibalized, and water pumps dug out. Was it all to ensure that the PCSO would not be able to return if so ordered by the courts or any other authority?

The only charity known is one that is given to her extended parasitic Yellow family, such as a PR man who has grabbed the chance to position himself anew to benefit from government’s info and advertising budgets — a privilege the PR man enjoyed without limit during a previous administration.

Morato says that during his term as chairman, he did not avail of any PR firm because the PCSO had its own PR department. But, since PR firms get commissions of anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent for contracts signed, we can assume it’ll be on the high side for the PR man and his “sponsor.”

Morato’s lengthy exposé includes many other issues, such as the conspiracy to transfer all PCSO funds to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Juico’s “spoiled milk” case at the Ombudsman filed by the late former DSWD Secretary Mita Pardo de Tavera, and others — but we’ll reserve these for future columns.

Looking at the situation, it’s now clear why Aquino III placed the PCSO directly under the Office of the President from where it used to be. It’s part of a sinister plot to take over the property, which had been preconceived by the Yellows from the very beginning. It shows the heartless, cynical, and predatory hypocrisy of this “elite” class of old families and oligarchs that rip off even the most vulnerable, needy and desperate of our public at every turn. This sweepstakes office under the Yellows should therefore be called Philippine Charity “Sweeped-stakes.”

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