MANILA, Philippines — Identify other religious groups that received financial aid.

This was the challenge of the Catholic Church to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) amid the issue on the “Pajero Bishops.”

Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said if the state-owned lottery agency really wants to name all their beneficiaries then they should also include other religious groups and not just single out the Catholic Church.

“There are beneficiaries also not coming from the Catholic Church. Other people are asking why pinpoint on the Catholic bishops? Is it because some of the bishops are critical? Is it because of the position of the bishops on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill?” he told reporters in an interview.

But Malacañang said the Aquino government is not singling out the Catholic Church.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said that it just so happened that the Commission on Audit (CoA) report for 2008 and 2009 had detected donations to some bishops. The same CoA report did not mention any other religious denomination, Valte added.

“It’s not something personal, it’s just that the 2008 and 2009 COA report itself stated that the money should not have been disbursed in that manner because it is violative of the constitutional prohibition,” Valte said in an interview over government radio dzRB.

Former CBCP president and Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla also echoed what Odchimar said.

“If there’s malice in those donations to Catholic bishops, the PCSO must also identify all the other recipients from other Churches,” he said in an article posted on the CBCP website.

“I don’t know why they take it just on Catholic bishops and make it appear as scandalous,” added Capalla.

The Davao prelate said he is saddened over the “unfair” treatment of PCSO to bishops on the issue when the agency’s donations to Catholic institutions were used for relief efforts and social programs on poverty alleviation and health.

“This is unfair. I challenged them to show the records, the real records and not the twisted ones,” Capalla said.

“They must have some reason for doing it. I don’t know what it is but they are really giving us priests a bad image,” added the prelate.

Earlier, PCSO Chairman Margarita Juico said former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo used the agency’s funds for political patronage.

Arroyo, she said, had also given vehicles to some bishops and priests at that time when she was facing a threat of removal from office due to allegations of corruptions.

The PCSO said the agency’s former board approved the grant of SUVs to Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, Msgr. Augusto Laban of Sorsogon, and Fr. Roger Lood of Iligan City.

The request of Lood was reportedly coursed through Archbishop Capalla, who endorsed the letter to Arroyo in 2009.

Capalla said he did endorse Lood’s proposed project for possible funding, “but I didn’t know if it was approved or not.”

He admitted telling Lood to ask for assistance from PCSO because “it is a charitable institution and helping the poor.”

His endorsement of Lood’s proposed project, said Capalla, may have been the reason his name came out in the SUV issue.

Iligan Bishop already said that Lood never received any vehicle from the PCSO and that the priest failed to get any support for his project.

Quevedo and Pueblos also denied receiving vehicle from PCSO.

Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad, another prelate implicated in the controversy admitted receiving P1.1 million from the PCSO for the purchase of a vehicle.

“This vehicle is what we are using in our medical and relief operations,” he said over Church-run Radyo Veritas.

“But if they want to get it, if P-Noy wants to get it, it’s ready. We can return it to them,” added Jumoad.

In the said radio interview, the Basilan prelate also gave President Aquino this piece of advice.

“It is very difficult to govern a nation when we are divided. We have to cooperate and collaborate. And at the same time we have to work together and dialogue. If you do not listen to us. And if you only listen to those who will always praise you then we will never move on,” Jumoad said.

Valte said it is up to the PCSO to decide on their next action over the anomaly that they had uncovered.

The Palace official, however, reminded Catholic bishops that they are not above the law should criminal cases are filed against them over the donations they had received from the government,

“Certainly if it’s a criminal offense, nobody is above the law and nobody is immune from suit,” Valte said.

She stressed that the 1987 Constitution states that “no public money or property shall be appropriated, applied, paid or employed, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, sectarian institution, or system of religion, or of any priest, preacher, minister, other religious teacher, or dignitary as such, except when such priest, preacher, minister or dignitary is assigned to the Armed Forces or to any penal institution or government orphanage or leprosarium.”