In a press briefing here yesterday, PCSO spokesperson Florante Solmerin said the increase was decided upon last week to enable the agency to cope with the growing demand for medical assistance from families who could not afford medical cost.
This, even as Somerin also said that PCSO’s small town lottery (STL) continues to lose about 30 percent of its monthly P1.5 billion earnings due to competition from illegal gambling such as jueteng.
“There is a need to really campaign against illegal gambling,” he said.
He noted,however, that the P1.5 billion monthly earnings of STL is a significant increase from an average of only P400 million per month in the past administrations.
Solmerin attributed this in part to the increase in the number of authorized STL agents from 18 to 72. “There are actually 82 authorized agents but only 72 so far are operational,” he noted.
He also said the PCSO is establishing ASAP or as-soon-aspossible desks in selected hospitals to handle IMAP applications.
“The patient seeking PCSO IMAP can just proceed to the ASAP desks and present their hospital bills,” he said.
Solmerin said that in case the hospital has no ASAP desk yet, help under IMAP could be sought from the nearest PCSO field office.
