PCSO identifies bishops who supposedly received Pajeros, cash

MANILA, Philippines—The new management of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has identified the seven Catholic bishops and organizations that supposedly received illegal donations in the form of Mitsubishi Pajeros and cash  worth totaling P8.3 million from the PCSO during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II told the Inquirer that the Commission on Audit has found the disbursement of money from PCSO’s charity fund to the bishops that was made by the former PCSO management and board from 2007 to 2010 to be “unconstitutional.’’

“The new board has found these donations to the church or any religious organization as illegal and we have stopped these since we took over last year,’’ Rojas said.

The Constitution states that “no public money or property shall be appropriated, applied, paid or employed, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, sectarian institution, or system of religion, or of any priest, preacher, minister, other religious teacher, or dignitary as such, except when such priest, preacher, minister or dignitary is assigned to the armed forces or to any penal institution or government orphanage or leprosarium.’’

The recipients of the illegal donations for the purchase of 4×4 vehicles were identified as the Diocese of Butuan (P1.704 million released on July 9, 2009); Zamboanga Archdiocesan Social Action Apostolate (P1.54 million released on July 9, 2009); Archdiocese of Cotabato  (P1.44 million (released on February 24, 2009); Diocese of Bangued, Abra ( P1.129 million released on January 16, 2009); Roman Catholic Prelate of Isabela, Basilan (P1.125 million released on July 2, 2009); and Apostolic Vicariate of Bontoc (P600,000 released on April 30, 2007). A  seventh recipient, Caritas Nueva Segovia, which covers  Ilocos Sur province, received P720,000 on March 17, 2010 under the general term  “financial assistance.’’

The leaders of these dioceses and church organizations are Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos of Butuan; Archbishop Romulo G. Valles of Zamboanga; Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo of Cotabato; Bishop Leopoldo C. Jaucian; Bishop Martin Jumoad of Isabela;  Bishop Rodolfo F. Beltran of Bontoc;  and Archbishop Ernesto Antolin Salgado (Caritas Nueva Segovia).

In  a previous interview with the Inquirer, PCSO chair Margarita Juico, who also served as PCSO director under the Arroyo administration from 2001 to 2005, claimed that President Arroyo showered the bishops with Pajeros and cash donations using PCSO funds for political leverage in the middle of public calls for her to step down in 2005 due to the “Hello Garci’’ election  cheating scandal.

Juico said that Arroyo wooed an influential group of bishops to her side to prevent the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines from coming out with a unified stand on her resignation, which could have been crucial to her further stay in office.

Father Robert Reyes, in a radio interview, said a lot of Church leaders were surprised that the CBCP  did not make a stand to force Arroyo to resign. He said that influencing just 10 percent of the 90 bishops in the CBCP would be enough to divide their vote.

Juico claimed that the Arroyo regime left the PCSO P4 billion in debt—P1 billion in unpaid bills to media organization and P3 billion in payables to government hospitals—as the PCSO board, under the control of Arroyo, not only used up its annual operating funds but also exhausted the funds meant for charity.

Juico claimed the old PCSO board “co-mingled’’ PCSO’s funds despite a mandate from its charter to keep three separate accounts for prize money, operations and charity funds from the money raised from lotto and other games of chance.

Rojas provided the Inquirer with photocopies of the actual checks given to the bishops and parts of the COA’s 2009 report.