Former CBCP head, other bishop deny receiving SUVs from PCSO
DAVAO CITY – Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla and Archbishop Romulo Valles of Zamboanga City have acknowledged endorsing requests for donations to charity projects from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office but denied they had asked for or received any vehicles from the government agency.
Capalla was head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines at the time the requests were supposedly made.
The prelate said he had not even heard of any bishop receiving cars from the charity office, which is under the Office of the President.
During his time as CBCP president, the influential Catholic group was perceived as being soft on then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was facing impeachment moves.
“I have not heard of a bishop receiving cars from PCSO,” Capalla told the Inquirer Thursday evening. “I’ve never heard of it, that’s why I don’t know.”
Capalla said the PCSO called him up on Wednesday to inform him that “they found that I endorsed a project for Fr. Roger Lood, a project for alcoholics.”
The prelate admitted he did endorse Lood’s project for possible PCSO funding, “but I didn’t know if it was approved or not.”
Capalla said Lood, who is part of the Diocese of Iligan, thought of establishing the program after he “had been cured of his alcoholism and wanted to share his experience to other alcoholics.”
He admitted telling Lood to ask for assistance from PCSO because “it is a charitable institution and helping the poor.”
Capalla said his endorsement of Lood’s project may have been the reason his name came out in the SUV issue.
“Maybe they saw my name in the (Lood fund request) paper and they concluded…” Capalla said, trailing off.
Asked what vehicle he uses in the Archdiocese of Davao, Capalla replied, “It is only an old sedan, which the diocese bought years ago.”
In Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo Valles admitted that the PCSO had funded some of the prelature’s social action projects.
“The Social Action Center through its director, Father Alain (Ruiz), made some requests for charity works and my name would be in the (request) letter because I always sign such letters,” Valles said.
He said he did not find it wrong to sign the requests because it was for the poor.
“All the funds going to the Social Action were not for my personal use and as part of command responsibility, because I sign the letters, definitely my name will appear as one of the bishops seeking help [from PCSO],” he said.
But Valles said the PCSO had not given him “a tire or a bolt, much more a car.”
“The car I am using is not from PCSO,” he said, referring to a 15-year old Nissan Terrano that “I inherited from Archbishop [Carmelo] Morelos.”
“I am very grateful because he took care of this very well,” Valles said.
The prelate said the report about bishops getting SUVs from PCSO was disturbing.
“I am affected… I am a little bit disturbed,” he said.
Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad, whose name also appeared on the PCSO list, did not answer his phone when the Philippine Daily Inquirer called him up.
