MANILA, Philippines – Moved by the plight of some bishops, TV host Willie Revillame and other prominent personalities have pooled their resources to raise money for the purchase of utility vehicles to be used in dioceses situated in far-flung and impoverished areas in the country.
Revillame himself donated P100,000 cash on top of a Foton 15-seater van and another Foton pickup, according to lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who is leading a fund-raising campaign for poor dioceses.
Macalintal launched the project following the media scandal triggered by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s erroneous accusation that seven Catholic bishops had received Mitsubishi Pajeros from the agency and had allegedly been using the vehicles for personal service.
The lawyer, a devout Catholic, was incensed by the PCSO exposé, especially after it turned out that no Pajeros had been given away. Save for one bishop whose diocese received money used to purchase a Montero 4×4 SUV, other dioceses got either pickups or vans.
One diocese used a PCSO cash donation to buy a 10-year-old, second-hand Nissan pickup for P280,000. Another diocese utilized a vehicle for its program against human trafficking.
“It’s not the amount you donate but the unity of all of us and respect and support for our priests and Church that matter most,” Macalintal told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a text message Thursday.
As of posting time, Macalintal said the campaign had raised P1.8 million cash, excluding combined pledges amounting to P300,000. A bulk of the donations came from politicians and businessmen, but Macalintal said credit should also go to ordinary Catholics.
“Everyone is a fund-raiser,” said Macalintal, who coursed cash donations through BPI Family Bank [Pamplona Tres-Las Pinas branch] using account name “Pondo ng Nagkakaisang Simbahang Katoliko” with account number 5623-5296-83.
“Even the seller of ‘sampaguita’ and ‘abaniko’ at Plaza Miranda are fund-raisers. We merely facilitate and keep the fund in trust on behalf on behalf of those who shared,” he added.
Senators Vicente Sotto III and Francis Escudero donated P200,000 and P100,000 cash respectively. Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, also shelled out P200,000.
An unexpected donor was the eldest son of ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, partylist Representative Juan Miguel Arroyo, who gave P50,000 cash.
Macalintal, who had served as the elder Arroyo’s election lawyer, said he was “sad and disheartened” that the donation triggered “negative reactions from some Catholic priests.”
“In my 27 years of service in the Ministry of Liturgy in the Catholic Church, I have been taught by our priests and the Bible not to be judgmental, which, obviously, is expected of a priest,” he said,
“I could only recall how Jesus was persecuted when He worked in the Sabbath Day and how He was questioned on why He ate or took meals with Levi or Matthew, the tax collector and other sinners.”