Palace, Church to remain 'partners' despite PCSO mess

Despite the mess over the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s donation of vehicles to some bishops, the government and the Church will remain partners in helping the poor. A Palace official and a Catholic bishop stressed this in separate radio interviews over the weekend, saying that their partnership in helping the poor had never been in question. “There’s no doubt, I think the Church and government are partners in helping our people. That is not in question. But as to the vehicles, there is an ongoing investigation that will determine what purpose the vehicles were used for. It is better to determine what purpose the vehicles were used for," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in Filipino on government radio dzRB on Saturday. She also appealed to the public to “stick to the issues" instead of dwelling on personalities involved in the mess. “Let’s stick to issues. Yan ang panawagan pag may issues of national interests. Let’s stick to issues and not dwell on personalities," she said. For his part, Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said the Catholic Church remains willing to cooperate with the government in social work for the poor. Bastes said that while some bishops are “very mad" that they were dragged into the mess, the Church remains inclined to continue its working relationship with government. “It (Sports Utility Vehicle scandal) is an incidental thing, I don’t think so. It’s an incidental thing because it is a result of an audit," he said in an interview on dwIZ radio, when asked if the SUV scandal will affect relations between the government and the Church. He said the only sore point for many bishops was that some sectors “made a mountain out of a molehill" by dragging some bishops into alleged irregularities. Otherwise, he said it is “good" that the Commission on Audit would do its job to uncover irregularities. “There are so many corrupt things in PCSO which (do) not involve bishops ... That incident with bishops are little things compared with so many other things. I am happy it is all uncovered but I am not happy they zero in, dramatize and make a mountain of a (molehill) of those bishops who really did something for the Church and for the good of the people," Bastes said. When asked if the Church is still interested in helping the government help the people, he said, “Yes, yes," adding the Church’s social action centers “are very efficient." Bastes also insisted the incident has not affected people’s “support" for bishops. Still, Bastes questioned the government’s “zeroing in" on Catholic bishops, adding the Senate investigation is an “overkill." “We were wondering why they were zeroing in on these poor bishops who really did not receive Pajeros. And they repeatedly accused them of doing something that is somehow wrong. That’s why for me when they did that investigation in the Senate was an overkill because I know those bishops were doing it for love for their people," he said. Bastes also said the government should be “thankful" to the bishops and the Church because they are doing things the government failed to do. — LBG, GMA News