Cruz: CBCP may quiz Tobias, nuns at Pagcor event

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) hierarchy will likely summon Novaliches bishop Antonio Tobias for questioning over his recent "blessing" of a gambling facility. Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop Oscar Cruz said Saturday Tobias may face sanctions ranging from admonition to dismissal, depending on the CBCP leadership's judgment. "Si Bishop Tobias di ko pa nakakausap. Wala ako karapatan siya tanungin at usigin. Kung sakali ang makakatanong sa kanya ay ang CBCP leadership, doon siguro pupunta yun (I haven't talked to Bishop Tobias. I have no right to question him, but the CBCP leadership does. Chances are, it will summon Bishop Tobias to explain his side)," Cruz, an anti-gambling crusader, said in a radio interview on Saturday. He said he is now "helping" gather information on the incident and will submit his findings to CBCP president Angel Lagdameo. Tobias earlier claimed he saw nothing wrong in blessing the new facility of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), where a group of nuns was seen trying out its slot machines. Cruz said priests and bishops will likely get a more severe penalty than the nuns as they are presumed to "know what they are doing," and that they "are acting on deliberate judgment." He said the basis for the questioning will be a provision in Canon Law where "clerics and religious should avoid any act unbecoming of their state of life." Besides, he said the CBCP has a running policy since 2004 that the religious are not to accept donations from Pagcor. "Just to be present there, not only their presence but to try (the slot machines), it's imprudent," he said. GMANews.TV