Senate summons ex-PCSO executives

Thursday, July 7, 2011

MANILA -- The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Wednesday issued summons against former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) executives being charged with pocketing millions in government funds.

Invited to appear before the Senate among others is former general manager Rosario Uriarte, who allegedly took at least P315 million from PCSO coffers.

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In Wednesday's Senate hearing on the alleged irregularities in the agency, PCSO board member Maria Aleta Tolentino said Uriarte received "intelligence funds" for the PCSO in 2008 and 2009 amounting to P165 million.

Intelligence funds, as usually used by the police and military, are not subject to audit.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the PCSO may have larger intelligence fund than the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Under the General Appropriations Act of 2011, the AFP has around P123.7 million for "confidential and intelligence operations."

Uriarte also allegedly received another P150 million taken from the PCSO's public relations budget, Tolentino said.

The committee also summoned former PCSO advertising manager Manuel Garcia, who has been accused of taking a 40-percent cut of all media projects of the PCSO.

He allegedly got around P1.5 billion in "kickbacks" from advertising placements and for the TV show "Pangarap kong Jackpot," which depicted the lives of lottery and sweepstakes winners.

If Uriarte and Garcia fail to show up at the Senate hearing Thursday, the Blue Ribbon committee can order the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest them.

Also expected at the Thursday hearing are PCSO chairman Margarito Juico and general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II. The current board members of the PCSO have also been asked to attend.

Initially, the hearing was supposed to give the previous PCSO board, including former board member Manuel Morato, a chance to explain alleged irregularities at the office. Former PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia was also invited to come.

Senator Francis Escudero moved to have the present PCSO board attend again so that the committee can hear both sides of the issue.

'PCSO giving away too much money'

Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Teofisto Guingona III said the PCSO is giving away too much money and not all of it goes to charity institutions.

"The PCSO charity fund loses money because it is forced to give money (for purposes) not related to its mandate," Guingona said at a press conference after the hearing on Wednesday.

According to its website, the PCSO takes 30 percent of the income from lotto and sweepstakes ticket sales and puts it into a trust fund. It said the trust fund is used exclusively to finance and support health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.

During the hearing, PCSO chairman Juico said the PCSO also gives money to the Commission on Higher Education, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. and other agencies that are not covered by its charter.

Those fund allocations, mandated by various laws, eat into the charity fund, Guingona said. "Money that should have gone to the poor goes somewhere else," he said.

Guingona is eyeing a revision of the PCSO Charter to make sure money will only go to health projects and charitable institutions that it was created to support.

Senator Panfilo Lacson has also called for an update of the PCSO Charter, saying it is already outdated.

Congress created the PCSO in 1954 and its original Charter had been revised twice, in 1977 and 1979.

"And it's now 2011. (We need to revise the charter) just so we can fix the PCSO's funds and to make sure they go where they are supposed to go," he said.

During the hearing, PCSO general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas said the previous PCSO board left the office with a debt of P3 billion that it is now paying off. He said the debt was incurred from overspending by the previous board.

Lacson asked whether the PCSO could run after former members of the board for the alleged overspending, but PCSO board member Maria Aleta Tolentino said there was nothing in their Charter on that.

What the 57-year-old Charter does call for is imprisonment for selling fake sweepstakes tickets.

Senator Escudero, meanwhile, called on the sweepstakes office to lay down guidelines on how medical assistance and other grants are given.

He said the PCSO should target the poorest of the poor, and not just in the areas where its 26 offices are located.

"We can use the census and our labor force survey. Why is it that we are able to identify the extent and magnitude of poor families by areas? The PCSO can use this for targeting to be able to reach the most number of people in the provinces too and extend its services," he said.

He also assailed the PCSO for its supposed "Imperial Manila" syndrome for offering most of its services and assistance in the nation's capital.

"The poor and sick people are not concentrated only in certain parts of the country. We have them all over the country. I would like to believe that the 26 offices of PCSO nationwide have pre-identified the poorest areas where fund allocation and disbursement is most needed, like the Armm (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and majority of Mindanao," he said.

The Senate hearing was prompted by reports of luxury vehicles and cash donations given to members of the clergy.

Among them was Butuan Bishop Juan De Dios Pueblos, whom the PCSO said solicited the donation of a new vehicle as a "birthday gift." The PCSO said a board resolution in 2009 approved the release of around P1.7 million "for one unit, 4x4 service vehicle."

Forgo government donations

Catholic Church leaders on Wednesday said they would forgo donations from the PCSO if giving the Church government money is "improper, if not illegal."

In a letter to Senator Teofisto Guingona III, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines welcomed a Senate probe on the allegedly improper donation of high-priced vehicles to members of the clergy.

According to a Commission on Audit report, state auditors said the purchase of five vehicles given to Catholic Church archdioceses that was charged to the Charity Fund of the PCSO may have violated the Constitution.

The Constitution bars the use of public funds "for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, sectarian institution, or system of religion."

"We are grateful that this matter has come to light, and that the Senate can now help the PCSO clarify this issue once and for all," CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar said.

He said that if the PCSO donations are illegal, "by all means, let us put an end to this long-standing practice." However, he said the CBCP believes no law was broken.

He added the donations do not belong to a particular bishop but to the diocese that received the donation. "Whatever benefit the Catholic Church may draw from the gift is purely incidental," he wrote.

The CBCP letter came with a matrix of allegations against the "Pajero 7," the moniker given by the media to seven bishops who allegedly bought Mitsubishi Pajeros with PCSO money.

According to the CBCP, none of the bishops named bought Pajeros. Bishop Rodolfo Beltran of Bontoc-Lagawe bought a second-hand 10-year-old Nissan Pathfinder pick-up, it said.

Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian of Bangued, Abra and Bishop Martin Jumoad bought Mitsubishi Stradas. Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato bought a Toyota Grandia Hi-Ace, as did Bishop Romullo Valles of Zamboanga. Bishop Ernesto Salgado of Caritas Nueva Segovia in Ilocos Sur, meanwhile, bought an Isuzu Crosswind, the CBCP said.

Butuan Bishop Juan De Dios Pueblos, meanwhile, bought a Mitsubishi Montero, "and not a Pajero," the CBCP said. The Mitsubishi Pajero is sold in the United States as the Montero.

Odchimar said the vehicles were used for Church outreach programs.

Pueblos, who requested the vehicle from then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as a "birthday gift" said he needed a new car for the Church's "social and spiritual programs."

Guingona said the donations have to be seen in the context of what they were meant for. "If the objective is to promote a certain religion, that's wrong. If the objective is to be charitable and not for the religion, that's allowed."

Senate President Enrile agreed with this view, saying if the vehicles were given for the benefit of the public, "and not for the person receiving it, you cannot fault them for that."

Senator Lacson was skeptical, however. "Why a sports-utility vehicle (SUV)? Why ask for that? If you want to help the poor, why not ask for medicine and medical kits for the poor?" he said.

Lacson said the vehicles were bought not to aid the poor, but to aid the comfort of whoever will ride in the SUV.

Palace praises PCSO officials

Malacanang on Wednesday praised the PCSO for participating in a Senate investigation regarding the alleged practice of donating expensive motor vehicles to Catholic bishops during the previous administration.

"What the Senate is doing is in aid of legislation and we are glad that the PCSO is doing its job of promoting transparency in their search for the truth," Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.

Lacierda said Malacanang will not urge the bishops to return the vehicles leaving it to the conscience of those who benefited from the alleged anomalous practice.

"We will leave it to them to decide the best and proper thing to do in this case," he said.

The Palace official reiterated that the issue against the Catholic bishops has nothing to do with their opposing views on Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

"They (PCSO) are just doing their work so it is something they are doing based on their mandate to promote good governance," he said.

He added that it is not a way of getting back at the Church pointing out that the issue started at the Commission on Audit (COA), a body independent from Malacanang.

"That is totally baseless. We don't know the COA report until they revealed it," Lacierda said.

He also said Malacanang does not need to coerce the Church because it perfectly understands the stand of the bishops on RH bill. (Sunnex)