Enrile: Give bishops a chance to explain side in PCSO issue

(Updated 7:14 p.m.) Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday asked the public to allow Catholic bishops to explain why they supposedly received utility vehicles from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) before judging them. "I don’t think we should be cynical and suspicious about the conduct of our religious people. As far as I am concerned, I will not say that people are guilty until I hear them," Enrile told reporters in an ambush interview. He issued the statement after reports quoted incumbent PCSO chairman Maragarita Juico as saying that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had given Pajeros — through the PCSO — to some bishops before she stepped down from office in 2010. PCSO director Atty. Aleta Tolentino had said that P6.9 million of the charity's fund was allocated for the purchase of five to six utility vehicles, which were supposedly given to the Archdiocese of Cotabato, Zamboanga, Caritas Nueva Segovia, Basilan, and Butuan from February to July 2009. But former PCSO chairman Manoling Morato said that there is nothing wrong with giving vehicles to Church officials if the vehicles will be used for charity work, which he said is the case with the prelates involved. Enrile, for his part, said that it's normal for people to "transfer" to the government the responsibility of responding to a request for assistance, especially in terms of poverty alleviation. "Let us try to be objective about it, and preserve our institutions. Otherwise we will break up as a society. We will always accuse everybody as crooks. I don’t think that those prelates receive this money and pocket it. They are not politicians. They are not businessmen, and they are not worldly people. They are supposed to be religious people to minister to the needs of their countrymen," he said. Probe The Senate blue ribbon committee is expected to begin its inquiry into the issue on Wednesday. Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, however, said the executive branch should conduct its own inquiry into the controversy. "The Senate will take the lead but I'm hoping that the executive will have a parallel investigation into the case. It can be by the PCSO itself but it will be better if it was conducted by outsiders," he said at a press conference on Tuesday. Cayetano suggested the creation of a "super fact-finding committee" that can be tasked to look into the anomalies during the Arroyo administration and even the ones before it. "Why can't we have an organized manner of investigating all of these issues in the past administration... and not only the Arroyo administration but before that," he said. Enrile, meanwhile, said that people should not connect the PCSO issue with the controversial Reproductive Health bill, which has caused a rift between the Church and the Aquino administration. "RH Bill is a separate matter. Mababaw masyado na pag-iisip ‘yan (That kind of thinking is too shallow)," he said. 'Kadiri' bishops Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP), a group of women advocates working in grassroots communities, also condemned the bishops embroiled in the controversy, saying they should be investigated. “These kadiri bishops need to be investigated and if proven guilty, suffer appropriate penalties together with involved government officials, past and present," said DSWP chairperson Elizabeth Angsioco. The group is a staunch supporter of women's rights and the Reproductive Health Bill, which the Catholic Church has strongly objected. “There should be no sacred cows, even members of the influential Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) are subject to our laws," she added. The group lamented how regular individuals who ask for help from the PCSO oftentimes "receive a pittance" while bishops get million pesos worth in assistance from the same agency. "It robbed poor people of possible assistance they needed that instead went to the bishops... Nasaan ang konsyensya ng mga bishops na ito? What these Pajero bishops did was both immoral and illegal," Angsioco said. - with Mark D. Merueñas/KBK, GMA News