PAGCOR chairman Bong Naguiat and president and COO Jorge Sarmiento, board members Lito Tanjuatco and Eugene Manalastas. Not in photo is Enrique Nuguid. (Sandee Masigan)

 “Bright be the road you are passing through

blessed be the days ahead of you;

and good health always be given you,

today and all the days of your life!”  – A morning blessing from Dr. Lorina Cabaluna, Joy in Living Foundation

MANILA, Philippines – Our very own BulongPulungan’s legal eagle and core member, Charito Planas is turning 81 at the end of this month. And instead of having a birthday party, she decided to donate instead to the East Avenue Medical Center’s TahanTahanan, a half-way house for kids with cancer!

This ex-martial law detainee and Marcos victim, former vice-mayor of Quezon City, former executive director of the Nayong Pilipino and the Quezon Memorial park  was so touched last Tuesday by the plight of the young patients from provinces with no homes to sleep in while undergoing treatments in Metro Manila, that she made this pledge  in our forum. Our forum heard about TahanTahanan from pediatric oncologist Dr. Marvi Abesamis, assistant medical director of the hospital who had long dreamt of such a project.

Last Valentine’s Day, President Aquino visited the hospital to see the improvement of its facilities and dropped by to say hello to the children stricken with cancer.  PCSO ‘s chairman Margie Juico  revealed that it was P-Noy who ordered her to find a half-way house for the young cancer patients at the height of the  controversy over the closing of the Bahay Bata in the premises of the PCSO. The building they were in was “condemned” so PCSO wanted to move them elsewhere, but somewhere along the way, some people behind the Bahay Bata resented the move to “evict” them. So they went to complain in media, and unfortunately some misunderstandings arose from hurt feelings.

As it turned out, the Bahay Bata got an extension to stay in the PCSO site but Margie and Dr. Abesamis had gotten together already for a separate facility where the “boarders” will have access to the facilities of the hospital. There will be holistic activities to help the patients and these will be led by teacher-volunteer, Yanqui, a parent of a cancer survivor.

GM Joy Rojas made it clear that PCSO has not stopped its endowment to Bahay Bata as they are also committed to support TahanTahanan in its present form.

PCSO gave funds to fix up a large area of a well-ventilated area at the basement of the EAMC and it has begun accepting clients (up to 50 with one caregiver each). BulongPulungan, from its charity funds, donated a television set to the TahanTahanan to the great joy of Marvi and Yanqui. Their wish list included monoblock tables and chairs, and Charito, remembering she had some extra ones, added to her donation.

TahanTahanan is a work in progress, so donations are welcome, from housewares for the children to money for their meals (including that of their caregivers).

Really, it was a wonderful networking of love, and we can only congratulate chairman Margie and general manager Joy Rojas for the quick solution to the children’s plight! Margie and Joy are hoping to have another mega-lotto like the one with a pot of over P700 million to add more funds to their charity pot!

How to treat the tandem of Margie Juico and Joy Rojas at the helm of PCSO? “Like a brother-sister team-up!”quickly answered Joy to which Margie nodded. So good luck, “ate” and “kuya!”

From charity gaming to serious gaming… Re-branding the casinos of PAGCOR to Casino Filipino is a priority with the mild-mannered chairman, ex-seminarian, Cristino “Bong” Naguiat. This is after posting an increase in revenues and saving close to a billion pesos through prudent spending!

I have never played at the gaming tables or even at the now push-button slot machines, but I can appreciate that there are many who like the games of chance inside a casino. Me, just let me enjoy the shows and sights.

But, I agree that re-branding will establish the Filipino identity of the casinos in the world map. With this re-branding comes refurbishing the casinos under them to conform to a “local look” without losing its international appeal.

(Do you know that concerned family members can have a relative ‘banned’ from the casino upon request to the management, for his own good?) Naguiat is unperturbed by the noisy minority against any form of gambling, and he likes to point out that unlike illegal numbers and underground games like jueteng, masiao, etc, Pagcor remits billions for the national coffers.