Binay says PCSO donations to Church okay

GOVERNMENT corporations can continue donating  to the Catholic Church as long as  funds are   accounted for, Vice President Jejomar Binay said.

Binay issued the statement  as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) winds up  its plenary assembly today with a statement on handling donations from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, newly elected CBCP president,  posted a message  encouraging cooperation by fellow bishops but was silent on the  crisis over newly revealed PCSO donations of Sports Utility Vehicles to some clergy leaders duirng the past administration.

“I would like to ask my brothers and the people…that as shepherds and servant leaders we may realize the importance and sacredness of our responsibility and together with our people, may we journey towards becoming a country of life and love,” Palma said through CBCPNews,  the official news service of the Church hierarchy.

Vice President Binay visited Bohol as part of the 50th Charter Day celebration of Danao town yesterday.

Binay said it is presumed that once a donation is given to the church, it would be used for social services and activities of the clergy.

Binay said greater transparency on the PCSO donations to the Church would help eliminate the controversy.

PCSO chairperson Margarita Juico recently said  the agency was verifying information that six or seven Sports Utility Vehicles  were donated to bishops a few months before former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo left Malacañang in 2010.

Binay said the church  functions as a non-government organization that accepts donations for their projects.

“The social needs and concerns should be prioritized,” he said.

He said there should be specific instructions on how the money would be used and what projects would be done by the church.

Binay dismissed calls for the PCSO’s abolition, saying this is an overreaction.

“Let’s not kill the patient. Let’s kill the disease,” he said.

Binay said the CBCP internal inquiry on the case should not disrupt the relations between the government and the clergy.

An Inquirer  source  in the Catholic Church hinted yesterday that the bishops would issue a “more defined” policy against receiving donations from legitimized gambling institutions and sources of illegal gambling.

Years ago, the CBCP  already adopted a collective policy for bishops “to refrain from soliciting or receiving funds from illegal and legal gambling so as not to promote a culture of gambling.”

The seven bishops implicated in the PCSO donations of SUVS were  were Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo Valles, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, Abra Bishop Leonardo Jaucian; Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad, Bontoc Bishop Rodolfo Beltran and Nueva Segovia Archbishop Ernesto Antolin Salgado.

A CBCPNet report said the bishops were ready to return the vehicles to end the controversy.

The CBCP media director, Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, said yesterday the seven bishops were obviously suffering from the recent attacks hurled against them.

“It cannot be denied that the seven are really suffering,” said Quitorio.

But he said such suffering was not in vain if it was paving the way “to opening a can of worms” that would help the government solve corruption in the country. /Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya with an Inquirer report