PCSO Chair Manuel Morato. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
The vehicles keep coming.
Despite its protests against the donation of utility vehicles to some Roman Catholic bishops during the Arroyo administration, the new leadership of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has apparently continued the practice.
The supposed recipients of the vehicles from the new PCSO leadership included a foundation involving a Protestant bishop, and five Catholic priests, who each got an ambulance for their respective schools or parishes, according to a list obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer from former PCSO Chair Manuel Morato.
Amid a Senate inquiry into alleged irregularities in the PCSO during the previous administration, the Bureau of Immigration yesterday placed on its watch list former PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte and the agency’s former advertising and promotions manager Manuel Garcia. (See banner story.)
Uriarte and Garcia have been linked to alleged irregularities in the PCSO during the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative.
‘Look who’s talking’
Morato said the recipients of the vehicles were determined by PCSO Chair Margarita Juico and Director Mabel Mamba. He said he got the list of recipients of vehicles from another PCSO official.
“Look who’s talking,” Morato told the Inquirer, referring to Juico’s exposé that some Catholic bishops got luxury vehicles, which later turned out to be either utility vehicles or passenger vans.
“She’s also doing it, but they’re doing it wrong,” he said.
Ambulances are for priests
Reached by phone, Juico admitted distributing ambulances to at least two parishes involved in health programs. She said the vehicles were among the 221 ambulances that were not distributed in the past administration.
“We are giving away ambulances, but not SUVs,” she told the Inquirer.
She said the ambulances were given away based on the results of “poverty mapping” which determined areas in most need of such vehicles.
Juico the other day dismissed as lies an earlier accusation by Morato that she spent at least P24.5 million for advertisements of her choice on radio, television and print while she was PCSO director from 2001 to 2005. “Anyone who believes him is twice a fool,” Juico said.
Morato said that while the PCSO was authorized to donate vehicles, ambulances should be given only to hospitals. He said religious groups should receive utility vehicles owing to the “rough terrains” in far-flung areas where they are involved in charity missions, such as feeding programs.
“You don’t donate ambulances to priests. You give them to hospitals,” he said.
Not exclusive
Morato’s list included a foundation based in Tuguegarao, Cagayan, and two parish pastoral councils and a parish also located in the same province.
Also supposedly receiving an ambulance each were the Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity College and the Basilica Minore of Our Lady of Piat. Their locations were not specified in the list.
Morato said the donation of vehicles under then President Arroyo was not exclusive to Catholic bishops or priests.
He said other religious denominations, including “ulamas,” nongovernment organizations and rotary clubs received donations as part of the PCSO’s charity program.
“It was open to everybody who needed our help—Protestants, Muslims, no problem,” he said. “We made them our partners because we could not reach remote places.”
RH bill
Morato said he suspected that the current PCSO opted to “single out” Catholic bishops in its exposé because of their opposition to the reproductive health bill.
“It’s like they’ve been made the target of a ‘project’ to tie their hands on the RH issue,” he said, noting that Mr. Aquino had been at odds with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines for his support of the RH measure.
The seven Catholic bishops who received utility vehicles from the PCSO have been invited to appear at the resumption of the Senate investigation on Wednesday.
Senator Francis Escudero on Friday said Arroyo and Uriarte could be charged with malversation of public funds over the alleged misuse of P325 million in PCSO intelligence funds during their watch.
“The PCSO has been used as a promoter of patronage politics by the past administration and as such it has become a source of injustice and inequality in the use and distribution of its charity fund,” Escudero said in a statement. With reports from Nikko Dizon and Norman Bordadora