Palace: It’s up to PCSO to accept vehicles returned by bishops

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang will let the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) decide whether it will accept the vehicles returned by seven Catholic bishops who received them and which were bought using PCSO funds.

“We reserve comment and defer to the PCSO on the matter of whether or not it will accept the vehicles returned,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said on Wednesday, hours after the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines informed a Senate hearing that the bishops were returning the vehicles, which were among those being investigated in the fund mess at the PCSO.

On whether the Palace was interested to pursue an investigation on the legality of PCSO’s donations to the bishops, Valte said the Palace would defer to the PCSO “on its next course of action in light of the developments in [Wednesday’s] hearing.”

On Wednesday, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo told senators the vehicles would be returned to authorized PCSO officials “regardless whether they are lawful or unlawful, constitutional or unconstitutional.”