Tuesday, July 12, 2011

BISHOPS TESTIFY; PCSO CHAIR CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION


By MARIO B. CASAYURAN and DAVID CAGAHASTIAN, mb.com.ph

The seven Catholic Church bishops who reportedly benefitted from the assistance extended by the past administration of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) will testify Wednesday before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

This developed as documents furnished by Raul Lambino, counsel for the previous sweepstakes board, showed that lawmakers belonging to the Liberal Party (LP) received the biggest number of PCSO ambulances, contrary to claims that most had gone to the allies of the former administration.

The seven bishops expected to testify are Bishop Rodolfo F. Beltran, DD, apostolic vicariate Bontoc-Lagawe; Bishop Leopoldo C. Juacian, SVD, DD, Diocese of Bangued, Abra; Most Rev. Martin s. Jumoad, DD, Roman Catholic prelate of Isabela Basilan; Bishop Juan de Dios M. Pueblos, diocese of Butuan; Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo OMI, Archdiocese of Cotabato; Most Rev. Ernesto A. Salgado DD, archbishop of Nueva Segovia, Caritas Nueva Segovia; and Archbishop Romulo G. Valles, DD, Zamboanga Archdiocesan Social Action Apostolate.

A Church source said Beltran is set to return his Nissan Pathfinder to the PCSO.

It was not clear whether the vehicle will be brought to the PCSO office before or after the Senate hearing.

In Wednesday’s Senate hearing, the committee will also focus on the use of PCSO funds to pay “blood money” to families of persons killed by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in foreign countries, the alleged misuse of P325 million in so-called intelligence funds, and alleged exaction of a 40 percent commission by a PCSO official from media agencies that ran PCSO advertisements.

Sen. Teofisto L. Guingona III, Blue Ribbon Committee chairman, assured that the public hearing would be fair and transparent leading to a satisfactory conclusion.

Earlier, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) apologized for the pain that the PCSO fund mess involving some prelates have brought to the faithful.

Guingona said the committee is expected to question the prelates on the P6.9 million PCSO funds given them by the PCSO supposedly for their charity and community work.

Bishop Pueblos had asked then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for an SUV for his 66th birthday last year. The PCSO later released a check to him which he used in buying a Mitsubishi Montero sports SUV.

Most of the checks issued by the PCSO to the prelates were supposed to be for their charity work.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said it is difficult to say whether or not the Catholic Church violated the time-honored principle of the separation of Church and State when its prelates received monies from the government through the PCSO.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Esteban B. Conejos Jr. was summoned to appear Wednesday to formally state for the record whether or not he received P5 million in cash supposedly given to him by former PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte as “blood money.”

In a press conference last week, Conejos denied having received P5 million in cash from Uriarte as “blood money” needed by an OFW.

Conejos, however, admitted that the Arroyo administration had set aside P20 million as blood money.

After the public hearing, the committee will grill Uriarte in a closed door session on the alleged misuse of the P325-million intelligence funds appropriated from 2008 to 2010.

Uriarte had claimed that the intelligence program and its multi-year funding had the go-signal the former President and that she gave copies of results of the intelligence operations only to President Arroyo.

Based on documents furnished by Lambino, 10 ambulances were distributed to 22 original LP members in the House, and the same number went to the ruling party at the time – the Lakas-CMD – which had 128 members. Former President Arroyo’s party, Kampi, which had 46 members, received six units.

PCSO Director Mabel Mamba had complained that only Mrs. Arroyo’s allies had been given ambulances, and that she did not see any of the vehicles going to Cagayan.

But records show that her husband, Cagayan Rep. Manuel Mamba of the LP, received one. Cagayan received 12 ambulances.

Boxing champion and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, also an LP member, received seven ambulances last month.

PCSO Chairman Margarita Juico said the seven ambulances were Pacquiao’s talent fee in exchange for his appearance in the sweepstakes office’s new ads.

She said Pacquiao’s talent fee was P25 million, but he settled for an “exchange deal” of seven ambulances.

But former PCSO Director Manuel Morato questioned the deal. “Why would they get an expensive endorser? Twenty-five million is too much. This is a charity fund we are talking about,” Morato said.

Aside from Mamba, other LP members whose districts received their share of ambulances and the others who are now allied with President Aquino were Representatives Roger Mercado of Southern Leyte, Rachel Arenas of Pangasinan, Maria Victoria Sy-Alvarado of Bulacan, Rodolfo Antonino of Nueva Ecija, and Florencio Miraflores of Aklan.

The other Liberal Party members who either ran for other posts or lost in the last elections, but who also received ambulances, were Reps. Antonio Roxas of Pasay, Miles Roces of Manila, Solomon Chungalao of Ifugao, Lawrence Wacnang of Kalinga, Rodriguez Dadivas of Capiz, and Antonio Roman of Bataan, the sweepstakes office’s records show.

Meanwhile, Guingona said his committee will give time to Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who has been “ill with extreme hypertension for the past many weeks,’’ to make a brief personal statement on the constitutional issues involved in the PCSO fund mess during the early stages of Wednesday’s hearing.