Women’s Group:
Investigate ‘Kadiri’ Bishops
By Democratic Socialist Women of the
Philippines (DSWP)
July
5, 2011
MANILA – Amid
Bishops’ involvement in the scandalous Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs)
and money released by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO),
a group of women advocates working in grassroots communities urged the
government to pursue investigation and penalize those who will be
proven guilty.
“There should be no
sacred cows, even members of the influential Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) are subject to our laws,” said
Elizabeth Angsioco, National Chairperson of the Democratic Socialist
Women of the Philippines (DSWP), staunch supporter of the Reproductive
Health (RH) Bill and advocate of women’s rights. “The guilty must be
punished,” she stressed.
DSWP, a national
organization of more than forty thousand members, underscores the
hypocrisy behind the issue. Angsioco said that it is lamentable that
those who position themselves as vanguards of morality are the ones
involved in this immoral issue. “They wrongly allege that the RH bill
will make people immoral and yet they are involved in accepting money
and expensive vehicles from gambling. What is moral about this?”
She explains,
“receiving luxury vehicles and money from government violates the
Constitutional provision stating that no public money may be used for
any religious group as part of the Constitution’s provisions on the
separation of church and State.”
“Moreover, it robbed
poor people of possible assistance they needed that instead went to
the bishops. It is common knowledge that ordinary people in dire need,
often with family members in life or death situations literally beg
when they approach PCSO for assistance. Often, they receive a
pittance. And yet, millions of public money that could have saved
lives were used for luxury vehicles for bishops. Nasaan ang
konsyensya ng mga bishops na ito? What these Pajero bishops did was
both immoral and illegal.”
“These kadiri bishops
need to be investigated and if proven guilty, suffer appropriate
penalties together with involved government officials, past and
present,” stressed Angsioco. “Ito ang kadiri.”