Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Philippine bishops deny luxury cars were 'gifts'

Roman Catholic bishops in the Philippines on Thursday denied they received luxury vehicles as gifts that had been paid for illegally by a former president who was trying to win political favour.

State lottery officials alleged that bishops were given Mitsubishi Pajeros and large donations from then-president Gloria Arroyo in 2007-2010 to get their support during her impeachment crisis over alleged corruption and vote fraud.

The cars and donations were allegedly financed using state lottery funds.

"Our conscience is clear," said Bishop Nereo Odchimar, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, in a letter to the Senate, which is holding public hearings on allegations that Arroyo illegally used lottery cash.

"We truly believe there was no violation of the law.... we categorically deny that the funds were used to buy 'seven Pajeros' for the 'personal use' of bishops," said the letter, which was made available to the press.

The lottery said donations by government entities to religious organisations are illegal due to the constitutional separation of church and state in the Catholic-dominant Philippines.

The church leaders' organisation, however, issued a separate statement which admitted that three bishops received lottery cash for "social projects" and had used some of the funds to purchase vehicles for those projects.

The statement said bishops had chosen more humble vehicles, such as used pick-up trucks.

Senator Franklin Drilon said on ABS-CBN television Thursday the statements still showed the bishops had let themselves be compromised by Arroyo, who was elected to the House of Representatives last year.

"That does not detract from the fact that certain prelates in the church took advantage of their closeness to the former president and the former president took some actions which eroded the credibility of the CBCP," he said, referring to the Bishops Conference.