ShareThisMANILA — The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has apologized for the pain that the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) fund mess involving at least seven bishops have brought to the faithful.
The PCSO provided to the bishops P6.9 million for vehicles supposedly for their charity and community work.The bishops were set to return the vehicles to PCSO after the Senate exposed the transaction during a public hearing.
This developed as documents furnished by Raul Lambino, counsel for the previous sweepstakes board, showed that lawmakers belonging to the Liberal Party (LP) received the biggest number of PCSO ambulances, contrary to claims that most had gone to the allies of the former administration.
Based on documents furnished by Lambino, 10 ambulances were distributed to 22 original LP members in the House, and the same number went to the ruling party at the time – the Lakas-CMD – which had 128 members. Former President Arroyo’s party, Kampi, which had 46 members, received six units.
PCSO Director Mabel Mamba had complained that only Mrs. Arroyo’s allies had been given ambulances, and that she did not see any of the vehicles going to Cagayan.
But records show that her husband, Cagayan Rep. Manuel Mamba of the LP, received one. Cagayan received 12 ambulances.
Boxing champion and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, also an LP member, received seven ambulances last month.
PCSO Chairman Margarita Juico, however, pointed out that the seven ambulances were Pacquiao’s talent fee in exchange for his appearance in the sweepstakes office’s new ads.
She said Pacquiao’s talent fee was P25 million, but he settled for an “exchange deal” of seven ambulances.