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Bishop denies stealing disaster aid funding

Says he has nothing to hide, allegations motivated by disgruntled priests
Bishop denies stealing disaster aid funding
Bishop Jesse Mercado (center)
Published: June 20, 2012 10:08 AM GMT
Updated: June 20, 2012 10:08 AM GMT

Bishop Jesse Mercado of Paranaque today denied allegations by priests and lay leaders that he diverted millions of pesos in donations for victims of natural disasters. Bishop Mercado said he was sad about the actions of the disgruntled priests who wrote to the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, asking him to look into the finances of the diocese for alleged misuse of funds. “All donations are properly receipted and promptly turned over to the intended beneficiaries,” Bishop Mercado told ucanews.com. “The Diocese of Paranaque is annually audited by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila. And we got 100 percent ratings.” Bishop Mercado’s spokesman Fr Jerry Habunal yesterday confirmed that six priests had sent a letter to the nuncio. “But they are only six out of more than 50 priests in our diocese. They have personal issues and they wanted to be interviewed by the media,” he said. Bishop Mercado said the priests were motivated by desperation. “I think it all came down to the fact that some of them did not like what they got when we implemented a shuffle in the parishes. That is part of the issue,” Mercado said. He said he already met the nuncio but they did not talk about the alleged fund diversion. “To be honest, I haven’t talked to him about that. When needed, why not? I have nothing to hide.” A report from Manila-based online news service Rappler.com, quoted an unnamed priest as telling Archbishop Pinto in a letter about the pattern of corruption in the diocese, which is considered one of the richest in the Philippines. “The clergy and the laity have been questioning the lack of transparency and we are concerned that if this is not addressed properly and immediately, this potential scandal would really hurt our Church, especially our young diocese,” the priest was quoted as saying. According to the report, the diocese collected 1,631,473.05 pesos (US$38,702) for victims of a typhoon in 2009. In 2010 it collected 1,031,456.37 pesos for quake victims in Haiti and 129,201.25 pesos for fire victims in Muntinlupa city. In 2011 it received 3,470,589.95 for flood victims in Mindanao. But not all the funds were received by the beneficiaries, the report added. Some 3.2 million pesos appeared to have been diverted to the diocesan cash fund that was reflected on a financial report of the diocese, according to a priest quoted by Rappler. “The cash fund was, in turn, diverted to deposit investments with the Bank of the Philippine Islands that range from time and dollar deposits, to Central Bank-issued special deposit accounts.” The account already had a balance of 91.52 million pesos, according to the report.   Related Reports Gift scandal 'has hurt Church'

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