PNoy, Belmonte: No need to apologize to bishops

(UPDATE 2, 1:35 p.m.) Manila, Philippines - President Aquino and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday separately said they saw no need to apologize to the Catholic Church over government inquiries into PCSO funds and resources being released to the bishops and dioceses. The President said he sees no reason to say sorry, even amidst a palpably deteriorating relationship with Catholic leaders. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. echoed the President's stance.

"No need to apologize. (The) bishops should not have solicited (the vehicles) in the first place," Belmonte said. The Speaker was reacting to the demand of four bishops that President Benigno Aquino III public apologize after Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Margarita Juico acknowledged that she was wrong when she said seven bishops who were given vehicles received Mitsubishi Pajeros.

The issue was one of those tackled by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee in its investigation of allegations that more than P300 million in PCSO funds had been misused during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now the representative of Pampanga’s second district.

Although the Senate cleared the bishops of wrongdoing, the scandal prompted the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines to issue an apology.

One of the prelates, Butuan Bishop Juan De Dios Pueblos, issued a separate apology for his “lapse of judgment” in writing Arroyo asking for a 4x4 vehicle for his birthday. Bishops Jose Collin Bagaforo of Cotabato, Dinualdo Gutierrez of Marbel, Elenito Galido of Iligan and Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon also said Aquino should be uniting, not dividing the people. Although often critical of the administration,

Gabriela party-list Representative Emmi de Jesus called the four bishops’ demand a show of “arrogance." "Instead of showing the virtue of righteousness, mas kayabangan ang ipinakita nila (they have displayed arrogance)," she said.

Fellow Gabriela Representative Luz Ilagan said the bishops should not stray from the real issue, which is that their colleagues, indeed, received expensive vehicles from the PCSO.

“It is true that (PCSO) chief Margarita Juico was careless in using (the word) Pajero. She should have double-checked. But it does not erase the fact that they benefited wrongly. Whether Pajero or any other brand, they were accomplices to a grievous sin. If Juico must say a mea culpa, then for the bishops it is mea maxima culpa," Ilagan said.

(Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com | Ina Zara, News5)