May 12, 2005

DOJ chief: Do bishops want to run country?

By Philip C. Tubeza and Franco Emman Von Cena
May 12, 2005
Page A4

DO THE bishops want to run the country?

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez accused the Catholic Church of being too involved in partisan politics.

"The Church has become too intrusive. Maybe they want to run the government,'' Gonzalez said in an interview in the House of Representatives.

Gonzalez was commenting on the call of three Catholic bishops for a change in government and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz's revelation that jueteng had worsened under the present administration.

When asked if the Department of Justice would file sedition charges against them, Gonzalez said: "No. Why should we? They don't have battalions."

Only if...
Gonzalez said the DOJ would formally investigate the jueteng lords on the list that Cruz submitted to Congress only if the bishop filed a formal case against them.

"We cannot have a preliminary investigation on something not filed. If the archbishop will file, we will,'' Gonzalez said.

"The problem is he said that his information was second-hand. He admitted that, so it's hearsay,'' he added.

He added that some of the people on Cruz list had been investigated before by Congress. He noted a notorious Central Luzon jueteng lord who was even invited to attend a hearing.

"The chair (of the House committee) then was (Paranaque Rep. Roilo) Golez. I was a member and we received so many threats during that time,'' Gonzalez said.
Loyalty checks

While admitting that he ordered state prosecutors to go on stand-by during the height of destabilization rumors, Gonzalez claimed that the administration was not monitoring its political adversaries or making loyalty checks among generals.

"Only my wife makes loyalty checks,'' he said.

He said the uproar over the unpopular issues of the expanded value added tax and the P2 fare
hike could be minimized if the government properly presented its case to the public.

"You know these fare hikes and VAT, if you properly explain them, wala yan (that's nothing). All of these is about perception,'' Gonzalez said.