No more scams from Lim - CBCP

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) gave assurances yesterday that the businessman responsible for the failure of a multimillion-peso Internet venture involving the Church would no longer be able to pull off the same scam anymore.

CBCP media director, Right Rev. Pedro Quitorio III, revealed that businessman Eman Lim has supposedly fled to the US to allegedly dodge lawsuits of at least 30 companies who were duped in the bankrupt Internet venture CBCPNet.

The monsignor claimed Lim was supposedly trying to pull off another business venture and was allegedly dropping the name of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.

But Quitorio said Lim’s supposed misadventures involving the Catholic Church in the Philippines has already been well-publicized and he would have a difficult time pulling off a similar "scam."

"I am optimistic that he cannot do it again. In fact, it would be very hard for him to open up a new thing," said Quitorio, one of three church prelates whom Lim allegedly conned into participating in an Internet venture that eventually went bankrupt.

Quitorio, along with Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz and Bataan Bishop Honesto Ongtioco were persuaded to establish CBCP’s own Internet service provider by incorporating in 2000 a joint venture with Lim and his wife Mardie as majority stockholders.