CBCP - Bishops and Philippine Goverment

CBCP: Anti-Cha-cha stance not to push church tax
exemption

11/03/2006

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) yesterday
said it had no sectoral agenda in its expressed
opposition to the
proposal to amend the 1987 Constitution and is
not trying to coerce
the government into lifting the imposed tax on
the church.

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, spokesman and media
director of the CBCP, said
the CBCP's aired objection to the proposed
revision of the 19-year-
old Charter was basically due to the reason
stated by the government
in pushing Charter change (Cha-cha).

"Changing the Constitution would only worsen the
situation of the
Philippines because of the (government's) hidden
agenda and this is
perpetuated by deception, lying and corruption,"
he said.

Quitorio added the issue on the tax on the church
is an almost
insubstantial part of their objection to Cha-cha.

He said the Catholic church is abiding by the law
and is paying its
taxes along with schools and other businesses
owned and operated by
the church.

Quitorio stressed the proposed amendments to the
Constitution through
the government-backed people's initiative had
just been revived
following the controversy hounding the legitimacy
of the Arroyo
government.

In an earlier statement, the CBCP lauded the
Supreme Court (SC) for
scrapping the petition for the recognition of a
people's initiative
to effect Cha-cha that was filed by the Sigaw ng
Bayan movement and
the Union of Local Authorities (Ulap).

Prior to the SC's junking of the petition, the
Commission on
Elections (Comelec) turned it down on the grounds
that there was no
enabling law to allow for it.

CBCP president, Jaro, Leyte Arhcbishop Angel
Lagdameo said the
Catholic Church is not against Cha-cha per se
since they agree that
some provisions of the Constitution needs to be
amended, but what
they are opposing is the timing of the proposed
amendments.