Better ride bikes than take Arroyo money, bishops told

Bishops should just ride bicycles to reach out to the poor instead of receiving funds, including a donation from a member of the Arroyo family, for the purchase of new cars, said an official of the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Fr. Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the National Secretariat for Social Action, could not hide his astonishment when organizers of the fund-raising activity announced on Tuesday that Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Mikey Arroyo, a son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, had chipped in P50,000 for the bishops.

“If we’ve been put to shame for accepting donations from the PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office), accepting donation from the Arroyos is more abominable and unacceptable,” Gariguez said at a forum hosted by the Catholic Media Network.

On July 13, seven bishops returned to the PCSO vehicles that were bought with donations from the charity agency from 2007 to 2010, the last three years of the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo, who courted the support of the bishops, faced impeachment complaints, accusations of stealing the 2004 presidential election and charges of corruption.

The day before the bishops returned the vehicles and appeared before a Senate probe, the CBCP issued a pastoral statement in which it apologized to the faithful for receiving donations from the PCSO.

Shameful

“It’s more shameful to the Catholic Church to accept a donation that includes money from the Arroyos,” Gariguez said.

He said the donation from the fund-raising activity would be more acceptable to the Church if the organizers would just exclude the money donated by Mikey Arroyo, who represents security guards and tricycle drivers in the House of Representatives.

Organizers Romulo Macalintal, a former election lawyer of President Arroyo, and Lito Atienza, a former Manila mayor and ally of Arroyo, said at the forum that their initiative that began last week had already raised more than P1.247 million.

The campaign was aimed at buying new vehicles for the bishops who had to return vehicles they got with P8.3 million in donations from the PCSO.

Plaza Miranda

Collection at Plaza Miranda near Quiapo Church on Friday had reached P74,422 from 2,352 people, Macalintal said. Most of the donors were churchgoers and poor vendors plying their wares at the church.

Mikey Arroyo also issued a check worth P50,000 last week to help the campaign.

The act of the poor, sharing what little they have with the Church, was commendable, Gariguez said.

But the Church should be discriminating in receiving donations, especially those made by certain personalities, he said.

Gariguez said he and his office would object to bishops accepting the donation tainted by corruption. “If I were to be asked, I’d rather ride the bicycle,” he said.

Gariguez said the bishops implicated in the controversy at the PCSO must agree with him in declining donations that include money amassed through shady businesses and suspicious activities.

“We know the record [of the Arroyos] and even up to now they are still being hounded by controversies. So, it will really be a big slap to the Church if it accepts money from the Arroyos,” Gariguez said.

Bigger problem

Fr. Joe Dizon, convenor of the National Clergy Discernment Group, also expressed opposition to the fund-raising effort led by Macalintal and Atienza.

“They should stop that because we should instead be encouraging the lay people to help the ministry of the Church,” Dizon told reporters on the sidelines of the forum.

He said the organizers were in for a bigger problem if the CBCP, as a body, decided not to accept the donation.

“They cannot [designate it] for another reason because there is such a thing in the Church that you have to respect the intention of the donor,” he said.

“If they gather [money] and the CBCP would not accept it, they should return them, down to the last centavo, to the donors… but how can they gather them again?” Dizon said.