Rafael L. Oriel, Jr.
8 April 2008

 

 

Mr. Ceralde, why not tell us your honest opinion? Are religious organizations considered non-profit organizations or not? Were they organized to go on charitable mission or to go on business to make profit?

If religious organizations are business organizations, how come they are not obligated to pay taxes while their competitors are obligated to pay taxes because they do not have the special status given to religious organizations? Is that a fair business practice?

You said, “Here in the US when the church invested its money in Reynolds Corp. and made millions, it did not take credit.” Is that right?

Good for them. US churches must be rich to be able to invest millions in Reynolds Corp. Did they pay the government profit tax for the millions they made? Is it right for them to risk millions of donation money by investing in stock? Investing in stocks is technically gambling, di ba?

It is ironic for religious leaders who are crusaders against gambling and jueteng only to be involved in a scandal where they gambled heavily in high-tech investment and lost, is it not?

You also said, “To sum it all up; the church did not have the expertise to establish an IT company so it went in as minority shareholder in a public corporation and not as a NOP.

Usually when it is confident of its abilities to undertake its mission on its own it does so as a NOP. The church should not be blamed when creditors and investors lose their money in a public corporation saying they had been duped because of their faith in the church.”

If what you said is true that the church did not have the expertise to establish an IT company so it went in as minority shareholder in CBCPNet and not as a non profit organization (NOP), how can you explain then about CBCP World?

According to the news, a day before news broke about CBCPNet’s bankruptcy, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) launched a similar Internet venture, called: CBCP World, a partnership with the Transpacific Broadcast Group International (TBGI) and the same bishops involved in CBCPNet.

According to the same news, it has a similar vision of providing filtered Internet access to dioceses throughout the country.

Only God knows what the real score is in CBCPNet and how much donation money the CBCP has invested. The big question being asked, “Who really owns CBCPNet and how come it is named after the CBCP?”

Godspeed to all the creditors and investors who lost their money especially to those whose lives went in limbo as a result of the fiasco.

According to the news, after a series of bouncing checks, CBCPNet now owes their firms an estimated P190 million.

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