Bishops to attend Senate hearing

MANILA, Philippines—The seven Catholic bishops criticized for receiving donations of utility vehicles for charity projects in their dioceses during the Arroyo administration have decided to come face-to-face with senators looking into the controversy.

Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos and his fellow prelates received the Senate summons last Thursday and decided it would be best to attend the hearing and formally respond to allegations hurled against them by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

“We will attend as a group,” Abra Bishop Leonardo Jaucian told the Inquirer.

In the meantime, Jaucian said he has decided to return to the PCSO the Mitsubishi Strada pick-up his diocese had purchased with P1.107 million given to it by the PCSO two years ago.

During its annual plenary assembly which began Saturday, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines decided to leave to Jaucian and the six other prelates the choice of whether to return the utility vehicles bought with PCSO donations.

“The decision to return or not is given to individual bishops,” he said. “Everyone is willing to return the vehicles.”

Cotobato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo and Pueblos earlier indicated that they were ready to let go of the vehicles. They maintained that the vehicles were never used for their personal service, but for charity missions and other related programs.

An academician familiar with Pueblos’ activities  said Saturday that the prelate used his donated Mitsubishi Montero 4×4 as a “general utility vehicle” for the Butuan diocese. “Anybody was free to use it anytime for charity work,” she said.

PCSO chair Margarita Juico earlier labelled Quevedo, Pueblos, and Jaucian as among the so-called “Pajero 7” bishops, in apparent reference to the type of sports utility vehicle each of them  supposedly got.

But the Senate hearing revealed that besides Pueblos’ Montero, the rest got either brand-new or second-hand pickups or Asian utility vehicles.

Juico’s “Pajero 7” also included Archbishop Romulo Valles of Zamboanga, Bishop Martin Jumoad of Isabela in Basilan, Bishop Rodolfo Beltran of Bontoc-Lagawe, and Archbishop Ernesto Salgado of Caritas Nueva Segovia.

Jaucian  lamented the “damage done” by Juico’s accusation against the bishops.

He said an organization of Chinese-Filipino Catholics, of which he is the national coordinator and chaplain, was so dismayed with the allegation that it offered to raise funds for the purchase of a utility vehicle for the Diocese of Abra.

Jaucian said the group was appalled that bishops were being portrayed as “materialistic and corrupt” when the donations had actually been offered to them and were used for legitimate purposes.

Saturday’s CBCP assembly was intended to tackle the PCSO controversy and re-evaluate the Church’s overall partnership with the government in terms of charitable work, according to the bishop.

“We will see if we would still continue with the partnership considering that in the end, we are the ones being put in a bad light,” he said.