Church has billions in disposal for charity work
July 15, 2011
A GROUP of women advocates working in grassroots communities said the Catholic Church should use its multi-billion peso assets to fund its charity programs.
The Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) told Sun.Star that the Church reportedly has P20 billion worth of stocks in seven corporations alone based on data collated from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
These include the country’s third largest lender Bank of the Philippine Islands and the nation’s biggest metals producer Philex Mining Corp., where the Archdiocese of Manila owns 3.22 million shares worth P81.79 million based on Thursday’s stock price of P25.40 each.
Other companies the Church supposedly has stakes are diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp., Ayala Group of Companies, Phinma Corp., Ortigas-led Concrete Aggregates Corp., and PAL Holdings Inc., the parent company of Lucio Tan-owned Philippine Airlines (PAL).
DSWP issued the statement after the Senate investigated the handing out of utility vehicles to seven bishops by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in 2009.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has apologized on the matter while maintaining its support for government programs on poverty alleviation.
“If they needed the vehicles, they could very well afford to buy even a thousand of those,” DSWP national chairperson Elizabeth Angsioco said.
A source from the CBCP neither confirmed nor denied the multi-billion investments, saying the body has no way to require rich dioceses to help less privileged counterparts in their pro-poor programs.
“The CBCP only meets to tackle administrative matters and issues affecting the Church and the nation. It’s up to the well-off dioceses to share their wealth to poor dioceses,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Angsioco said the senators should not have gone soft on bishops during the Senate investigation last Wednesday just because they are members of the Catholic Church hierarchy.
She said the Constitution and other laws cover all Filipinos, and the investigation should ascertain if the bishops, by soliciting money from the PCSO to buy vehicles, have violated the law.
Angsioco stressed that the bishops, in doing what they did, undermined a provision of the Constitution that prohibits the use of public money for the benefit or support of any religion.
Moreover, the group said the bishops violated the CBCP policy against soliciting or accepting money from gambling, whether legal or illegal, even if this is to be used to help the poor.
“Worst”, Angsioco added, “they (bishops) deprived other people in dire need, those who could put the money given them in saving lives.”
The CBCP said in a pastoral letter last Monday that it will review the way it handles community outreach programs with the government. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)
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