Apart from this avenue, I was told that we could ask for financial assistance from certain branches of government and institutions: the one that always stood out is the PCSO - Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. I wouldn't forget what the hospice nurse told me during her first ever visit, "Asikasuhin po ninyo 'yung sa PCSO, masasandalan po ninyo 'yon."
So, I googled for the PCSO and looked for what could they possibly extend in my case. This is the link, and these are the requirements:
- Letter of request to Chairman/General Manager
- Medical Abstract
- Bill/quotation/costing from hospital pharmacy/supplies
- Laboratory requests/Medical prescriptions
- Endorsement/Acceptance Letter from Hospital Social Services/Credit Collections Officer
Somewhere along the way, I remembered an aunt whose husband also had cancer and that she was able to claim some assistance from the institution. These was her important pointers:
- Prepare all the documents and photocopy all of them, not once, but several times over.
- If you know someone who's holding a position in the government, try to get an endorsement letter/letter of introduction from him/her. "Hindi naman sa namomolitka, pero we need all the help we can get."
- Be there at the office as early as 5:00 am, and be there with someone else. You should come in pairs, so that you won't have to lose your line when you have to go pee.
- Being there early doesn't mean that you will finish early, and you won't finish it in one day. You may have to go back twice or thrice.
She was lucky she was granted the assistance she needed. She was given a voucher to claim some worth of oral chemotherapy drugs at a certain branch of a drug store that was affiliated with the institution.
I have yet to process mine.
See, we live in a province that is about five hours away from Manila. That meant that whoever will process the papers in my behalf will have to leave our place about an hour or two after midnight just to make it there by 5:00 am. And it isn't a guarantee that we are going to be the first in line. We heard that a lot of those who go there spend the night there just to make it first in line the following day.
Then, I only have my dad and my sister. That meant that they are the only pair that could go there to fix the papers. And they couldn't and wouldn't leave me alone. Not for a day.
But that doesn't mean that we are striking out this option. The fact is, the papers are ready. They could go anytime. And since our resources for the last few remaining cycles are depleting, we are really studying our grounds.
Anyway.
I was once asked by someone if I already tried going there at their office. And when I said not yet, she said: "I don't know, but when we had to go there, makikita mo na mas marami pang mas nangangailangan, higit na nangangailangan kaysa sa 'yo."
That is one of the things that the PCSO can do. It could change the lives of those people falling in line at five in the morning just to get some help.
It's not about the bishops and their Pajero's and SUV's. Let them have their SUV's or let them give it back. But I think abolishing this institution just because of this happening will affect the lives of those who look up to them for a flicker of hope.
Let the bishops take care of their penance whether it is from the law or from the church. But please, don't take the PCSO away from the very people they said they were using these Pajero's and SUV's - to give assistance to the poor and those in need.
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