No bishop got a single Pajero! What gives?

We had an intimate lunch with Ambassador Frank Benedicto together with his close media friends yesterday at the Laguna Garden Café to say that he is now, for all intents and purposes, retired from government service. But it doesn’t mean that he would be gone from the limelight, after all, even in his older years, Amb. Frank is still robust and healthy. This means we shall see him more often in the many cultural and social activities in Cebu. So on behalf of our readers, allow me to offer our deep gratitude and thanks to Amb. Frank Benedicto for the many years he served as the Filipino people’s Ambassador to Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Korea and China.

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 I’m happy and proud that the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) did not only apologize for the SUV controversy that Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Chairperson Margarita Juico exposed, and later on named those involved as “Pajero Bishops,” but also returned the SUVs to the PCSO. Earlier Mrs. Juico already admitted that there was not a single Pajero given to the bishops. When asked why she used the term Pajero? She then blamed the media for misquoting her. But GMA’s Mike Enriquez came up with an audio visual clip that showed Mrs. Juico herself using the term Pajero. Clearly, Mrs. Juico was lying through her teeth!

 I reckon that there was an effort by groups who used the PCSO and Mrs. Margie Juico to discredit the seven bishops involved, perhaps in a grand design to destroy the clergy in the midst of the struggle against the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. But now all this has backfired on Mrs. Juico, who had to admit that no Pajero was included in the vehicles given to the bishops. But the die has been cast. The CBCP has now returned all of the SUVs.

 The big question now is what will the PCSO do with these vehicles? Some say that they will be sold and the proceeds would be given to projects for the poor. But given the fact that we only belatedly learned about the mishandling of some P300 million in Intelligence Funds within the PCSO, I’m scared that some of these vehicles might end up in the wrong hands, because the money for those vehicles is peanuts as compared to P300 million. So we will be watching like a hawk as to where those returned vehicles would end up.

 I also praise Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos for admitting that he committed a “lapse in judgment” when he asked then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for a birthday gift in the year 2009. In truth, there was nothing wrong in asking the President for a birthday gift. What went wrong was when the PCSO was used to channel the money to the bishop.

 Meanwhile, because the bishops have been so open in this controversy, the PCSO has now accepted the explanation of the bishops and told the bishops that they are not keen on taking back the vehicles. But since the vehicles have been returned, PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II said that these will be sold in the public auction.

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 There was a huge conflagration in Barangay Punta Princesa the other night where some 200 families were left homeless. As I was listening to the radio reports, I learned that the firefighters ran out of water. Another radio reporter told us that when the first firetrucks that went in to fight the fire ran out of water, they were literally trapped by the other firetrucks that responded to the emergency. If you ask me, this is an operational problem. Our firetrucks must have a water source close to our barangays. As for the traffic jam, that should never be allowed to happen if it was done properly.

 The biggest problem we face in Cebu City is that we never learned from the mistakes of the past. For sure, the rebuilding of those burnt houses will soon commence and they will rebuild in the exact spot as before, which allowed the fire to spread. If only there was proper planning and the streets are wide enough, fires could be prevented from spreading so quickly like what happened to this community the other night.

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 There’s a new twist in the celebrated Ampatuan Massacre which will deflect the attention of the Filipino people from solving this crime and bringing the arrested perpetrators to justice. Zaldy Ampatuan is now talking; he is saying that he no longer cares even if his own family is jailed. But first he wants to turn state witness, so he can get off the hook. Now he is saying that the elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) were marred by massive cheating. But isn’t this something that we already knew?

 What is ugly here is that we heard that Zaldy Ampatuan was given an audience to Pres. PNoy by DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo and Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda. Though they deny it, these people should tell us who brokered that meeting between the President and Zaldy Ampatuan.

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