Bishop: I used SUV for gov't work, not for luxury

MANILA, Philippines – Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos today clarified that the sports utility vehicle given to him by former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was used for actual government work and not for luxury.

Pueblos stressed that he used the Pajero to go to areas in Caraga region that have difficult terrain, which cannot be reached by own car. He said he was helping the government look into the incidents of extra-judicial killings that time.

"She (Arroyo) recommended me as member of two Commissions -- the Melo Commission for extra-judicial killing and also for the Zenarosa Commission to stop private armies before election. So we have to go to Marawi, we have to go to far-flung places for the suspects,” the bishop told Church-run Radyo Veritas.

He added: “We have to go Masbate, Samar and these areas that I really feel I needed mobility. This is not luxury, but a work I have, not only for the Catholic Church or the diocese itself but it is actually for the work in the government."

Pueblos also stressed that the vehicle was also used to reach indigenous people in far-flung areas, lay leaders.

“We are helping them to build schools and bridges," he said.

The bishop added that he would gladly return the SUV to the government if asked to.

"I’d been riding my own vehicle. If that's necessary, that’s not really a problem," Pueblos said.

He said he is also willing to face the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, which is investigating the alleged misuse of funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

"I am willing. I will have a privilege speech there. We are not depriving the poor, we are not using the money of government.I do believe, this is PCSO program," the embattled bishop said.

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the blue ribbon committee, said the committee will ask the bishops involved in the PCSO fund mess to attend a hearing on Wednesday next week (July 13).

Guingona said in an interview yesterday that the bishops’ presence at the hearing would be vital because the committee has yet to see the whole picture of the supposedly anomalous donations to the Catholic church.

Aside from Pueblos, the new leadership of the PCSO has also exposed other bishops who received vehicles during the past administration.

PCSO director lawyer Aleta Tolentino said that in a series of resolutions in 2009, the former PCSO board approved the grant of two SUVs to Pueblos, one each for Rev. Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato, Monsignor Augusto Laban of Sorsogon and Fr. Roger Lood of the parish of Iligan City.

The request of Lood was coursed through Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao, who endorsed the letter to then President Gloria Arroyo on May 29, 2009.

The two SUVs of Pueblos costing to P1.7 million each were contained in Board Resolution 328 dated March 12, 2009 and Board Resolution 783 of June 5, 2009.

The board said PCSO approved the grant of two vehicles as service to the diocese of Butuan for its various community programs in Caraga, especially the poor in far-flung areas in need of medical and health services.

Tolentino said the Commission on Audit (COA) cited in a report that the grant of the vehicles amounting to P6.940 million violates the constitutional provision that “no public money or property shall be appropriated, applied or employed directly or indirectly, for the use of, benefit or support to any sect, church, denomination… except when such priest, preacher or dignitary is assigned to the Armed Forces or to any penal institution, or government orphanage or leprosarium.”