'Church never asked for donations' Vidal asks public: Drop Pagcor issue
Sept 23, 2005
Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal yesterday declared that the Catholic Church "never asked for donations of any kind" but were merely "requested to distribute these to various charitable institutions." Vidal appealed to the public to drop instead the issue of these donations from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation because the money just passed through the Church's hands and immediately went to the intended beneficiaries.
(The Freeman 09/11/2005) Backing away from his earlier promise to divulge the list of beneficiaries, Vidal yesterday said he would not do so anymore because he wanted to put the issue to rest and stop fueling the controversy that only tended to divide the Church and torment the minds of the public.
Apparently fed up with prejudicial issues against him and the Church, Vidal told reporters that yesterday's interview would be the last time he will talk on the controversy over the donations that he deemed were things of the past and should be forgotten.
Since the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued early last year a statement against using gambling money to finance charitable works, the Church stopped from being the conduit of Pagcor, said outgoing CBCP president, Davao archbishop Fernando Capalla.
Vidal, Capalla and archbishop Paciano Aniceto of San Fernando, Pampanga were three top Church officials who were put under fire recently for being in the 2003 list of alleged recipients of Pagcor money. Vidal earlier clarified that the money immediately went to the poor and the needy. "They can tell many things about me but please do not criticize the poor," he said adding that he is willing to be blamed and criticized for accepting donations in behalf of the recipients in Church charities.
Archdiocesan finance officer Rev. Fr. Joseph Tan also clarified that all donations that have been coursed through the Cebu Archdiocese were accounted for and donors were in turn issued receipts. One of those that received Pagcor money was the Cardinal Rosales Memorial Hospital in Dalaguete town, an establishment that the Archdiocese also subsidizes, said Tan.
Tan said that, if requested, he can produce the list of beneficiaries and the exact amount given but will take him time to do it because he has to check his records with the cashier who actually received the donations and issued the receipts. He also clarified that every donation getting through the Archdiocese always bears the cardinal's name because he is its "corporate soul" or the head.
Capalla, for his part, said he is willing to open the list of beneficiaries of Pagcor donations for the sake of transparency and to clear out the issue hurled against them, even if the Church had already stopped from being Pagcor's conduits of its charitable works.
"There are still who have asked for my help but I can only recommend them to Pagcor because we have stopped being conduits. We were clear on the teachings of the church that gambling is not per se an injustice but only if it deprives the poor of hard-earned money and if it promotes addiction," Capalla said. Archbishop Oscar Cruz, as quoted in a national paper, had denounced receiving donations from the state-operated Pagcor arguing that "the end does not justify the means" and that gambling money could not be made clean if given to the poor.
Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, the newly elected CBCP president, was also quoted as frowning against receiving Pagcor money as this might be misconstrued as accepting gambling as a good means to help the indigents.
Capalla has admitted that the issue as reported in newspapers somewhat affected the integrity of the Catholic Church but he questioned its timing. "Why not after our 2004 statement? Why is it only now? There might be some motives of some people in or out of power," he said apparently referring to the current political upheaval viz-a-viz the Church involvement.
'Church never asked for donations' Vidal asks public: Drop Pagcor issue