Studying a marble plaque posted in a Romblon church, in “perpetual gratitude” to its benefactors, can sound like a roll name at a Senate probe.
The names of Ako Bicol Consultant Zaldy Co, Curlee Discaya, Raymond and Alex Abelido, and former Division of Public Works and Highways regional director Gerald Pacanan adorn this commemorative marker.
Final however not least, on this roster of round 44 private and non-private figures, are the names of Esteban S. Madrona Sr. and Evangeline F. Madrona, mother and father of Romblon Consultant Eleandro Jesus Madrona.
Co, Discaya, the Abelido brothers, Pacanan, and Consultant Madrona have all been implicated within the billion-peso flood management controversy that’s now being investigated by the Senate blue ribbon committee.
They had been additionally main donors of the Nuestra Señora de Salvacion Church in Bachawan, San Agustin, Romblon, which was elevated as a parish on February 8, 2024. Their names seem on a commemorative plaque dated December 12, 2023.
The breakdown of most of those donations, together with Discaya’s, has not been disclosed. Co’s Sunwest Integrated, nevertheless, donated a complete of P3 million ($51,600) for the church development in 2023, in line with a November 2023 put up by the native information outlet Romblon Information.
“Could the Lord, in His boundless mercy, bathe manifold blessings upon our cherished benefactors. Could their kindness be repaid abundantly, and will they proceed to be vessels of his grace,” reads a dedication by Father John Mary Vianney Parago and his parishioners.
It’s all a blessing which, for critics, has changed into a curse for the Diocese of Romblon. Involved members of the diocese have raised the query of ethics.
How a lot has the Diocese of Romblon obtained from controversial donors? Does it conduct due diligence earlier than receiving donations? How will it rectify the scenario, if it plans to take action?
It’s additionally a difficult scenario for the diocese, which, in line with Rappler’s sources, has been eerily silent in regards to the flood management scandal. When different dioceses, together with the Archdiocese of Manila, joined the September 21 protests in opposition to corruption throughout the nation, no official assertion was heard from the Diocese of Romblon.
However, as critics requested, how does one increase a howl in opposition to benefactors?
A mom’s dying want
Questions had been raised throughout the diocese, though quietly, within the weeks after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. uncovered the flood management controversy on August 11.
The questions turned tougher to shrug off, nevertheless, after Curlee and Sarah Discaya named Madrona among the many 17 Home representatives who allegedly extorted cash from them. The Discaya couple made this allegation in a joint affidavit that they learn in a Senate blue ribbon committee listening to on September 8.
“I strongly deny the accusation,” Madrona stated in an ABS-CBN Information interview on September 8, referring to the Discayas’ assertion. The go to cited within the couple’s affidavit, he stated, was “to request a donation for a church.”
Madrona, a 76-year-old former seminarian, has been a longtime patron of the Diocese of Romblon.
Not solely did he donate to the Bachawan parish, he additionally spent P2 million to P3 million ($34,400 to $51,600) to construct a house for Romblon’s retired and ailing monks. His brother, in the meantime, donated the two,500-square-meter lot on which this Bahay Pari stands.
The development of the Bahay Pari started on February 10 this 12 months, and the construction was blessed by the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, on April 24.
Chatting with Rappler, Madrona stated his church donations fulfill the dying want of his deeply non secular mom, Evangeline, who advised him three or 4 days earlier than she died in 2018: “Huwag mong pabayaan ang ating mga pari at mga simbahan.” (Don’t overlook our monks and our church buildings.)
Madrona stated he himself spent eight years on the Saint Pius X Seminary in Roxas Metropolis, Capiz, beneath the tutelage of then-Father Jaime Sin, who would later turn into Manila archbishop. He later studied philosophy on the College of Santo Tomas Central Seminary in Manila.
“With all due respect, is it unhealthy to assist the Church? If it’s unhealthy, then maybe cost me. However that’s the Church,” Madrona stated in a mixture of English and Filipino.
He added that on the time the donations got, the flood management difficulty was “very far” from public consciousness. “Later on, if one thing sadly occurs to you, and also you turn into a prison, does that make that donation unhealthy?”
“Discaya by no means had a undertaking with me,” Madrona burdened, including that if he ever had a undertaking in Romblon, “his license was being borrowed” or he had a three way partnership with native contractors.
Information from the Sumbong sa Pangulo web site, nevertheless, present that a minimum of one Discaya agency had a Romblon undertaking that was not a three way partnership.
Primarily based on the Sumbong sa Pangulo web site, Romblon had 73 flood management initiatives from August 2022 to February 2025. Mixed, these initiatives quantity to P4.9 billion ($83.36 million).
One contractor that bagged a P289.49-million ($4.98 million) contract in Romblon was YPR Basic Contractor and Development Provide Integrated, considered one of 9 Discaya-owned firms. This was for the development of a river management construction alongside Pagpagoha River, Upstream, Tablas Island, Romblon, that was accomplished in August 2024.
Co’s Sunwest, which donated P3 million to the Bachawan church, bagged the largest contracts. The corporate was awarded 17 of the 73 flood management initiatives within the province, for a complete of P1.62 billion ($27.88 million).
Legacy Development Company — run by the Abelido brothers, who additionally donated to the Bachawan church — bagged P976.59 million ($16.79 million) in contracts. Legacy had two different joint initiatives with FFJJ Development price P173.57 million ($2.99 million).
Councilor writes bishop
The involvement of Madrona — who has been in Romblon politics since 1992 — prompted Lyndon Molino, a longtime opposition councilor in Romblon, to jot down a letter to Romblon Bishop Narciso Abellana.
Molino’s letter to the Romblon bishop was dated September 17 and was copy-furnished to the papal nuncio and the incoming president of the Catholic Bishops’ Convention of the Philippines, Lipa Archbishop Gilbert Garcera.
If one goes by non secular affiliation, Molino is likely to be the final to jot down this type of letter to the bishop. In any case, he’s not Catholic, however is a former Iglesia ni Cristo member who was expelled due to his activist political stance throughout the Marcos dictatorship.
Molino, nevertheless, stated he was relying on the Catholic Church to guide its flock. He stated he was writing “as a involved Romblomanon.”
The 61-year-old councilor posed the next questions, quoted beneath verbatim:
- Did the Diocese of Romblon formally authorize Congressman Madrona to solicit donations on its behalf for the development of the church in Barangay Bachawan?
- Can the Diocese verify the quantity that was donated by the Discayas for this undertaking?
- Had been these funds remitted on to the Diocese by the donors, or had been they transmitted by means of an middleman, similar to Congressman Madrona?
- Was an official receipt or formal acknowledgment of donation issued by the Diocese on to Mr. and Mrs. Discaya?
Molino emphasised the necessity for transparency “to reassure the folks of Romblon and protect the ethical authority of the diocese.” He stated the group deserves to know why the title of an individual investigated for corruption “got here to be engraved in a spot of worship.”
The Diocese of Romblon has not replied to Molino as of Thursday, October 2.
Rappler has additionally emailed the diocese and despatched a textual content message to Abellana relating to Molino’s letter and our personal questions, however we’ve but to obtain a response as of Thursday. We have now reached out to the parish as nicely. We are going to replace this story as soon as we hear from them.
‘Nobody is talking’
The problem is dividing the Diocese of Romblon: Is it moral or unethical to obtain donations from folks accused of corruption?
It’s a basic moral dilemma that’s typically answered with a quote attributed to the late Cardinal Jaime Sin: “If Devil seems to me and offers me cash, I’ll settle for the cash and spend all of it on the poor. It’s not the follow of the Church to ask donors the place the donations come from. Our responsibility is to ensure all donations go to the poor.”
This seems to be the reasoning of many members of the Diocese of Romblon.
In an interview with Rappler, Molino stated a preferred sentiment is that it’s all proper to obtain donations from any contractor or politician, so long as they’re made “in good religion.” However he believes it’s incorrect “from a biblical standpoint” to “obtain cash that comes from evil.”
He credited the Romblon Diocesan Council of the Laity and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente or the Aglipay Church, a historically activist church, for releasing statements that assist anti-corruption initiatives. The clergy of the Diocese of Romblon, nevertheless, has not launched any comparable assertion, which is puzzling to him.
.“Nobody is talking,” the councilor stated.
Molino surmised that Madrona has a powerful grip on the native Catholic Church — though the congressman himself attributed the silence to the belief of monks in him. Referring to corruption allegations, Madrona stated, “They consider that I can’t do this.”
When requested what the Diocese of Romblon ought to do, Molino stated, “They need to make a press release in opposition to corruption and lead the devoted to the rightful path.”
The diocese, he stated, must also “be clear” in regards to the donations it has obtained.
However the Catholic Church, like different establishments with stable hierarchies, shouldn’t be proof against a code of silence — and an inclination to guard one’s personal.
A involved lay chief within the Diocese of Romblon, who refused to be named, stated that monks questioning the donations comprise the minority. The supply stated solely round seven of the 45 monks of the diocese are “vital” of the scenario, though they’re silent about it.
The native church, whose fingers now appear to be tied, can’t converse out on the flood management scandal.
“The silence of our native church is deafening,” the Rappler informant stated.
The supply stated the Church “ought to have a list” of the donations it obtained from controversial figures, similar to contractors. “The Church must be very aware of what it receives. As a result of that’s blood cash from politicians.”
In line with a veteran canon lawyer consulted by Rappler, the Code of Canon Legislation “doesn’t say something straight about accepting donations from politicians as a result of canon legislation may be very clear in regards to the obligations for peace and justice.” He stated the problem may be higher approached from the angle of ethical theology and CBCP insurance policies.
Ruben Mendoza, a theology professor from Ateneo de Manila College, stated the Catholic Church ought to “be extra vital” about receiving donations. Commenting on the problem of donations basically and never on any particular politician, he stated it’s problematic if the Church fails to ask in regards to the supply of the cash.
“They need to not simply obtain and obtain,” Mendoza advised Rappler.
He famous that utang na loob — debt of gratitude — is deeply embedded in Filipino tradition. “How might the Church now converse in these locations when it obtained a whole lot of funding from these folks? Is debt of gratitude stronger than the mission of the Church?”
He added that by accepting cash from folks suspected of corruption, the Church gives the look that “it’s okay to be corrupt and provides to the Church.”
Mendoza, who not too long ago wrote an article about Church funds, stated that the Church “ought to train prophetic ministry by means of denouncing corruption, denouncing conditions of injustice.”
“Corrupt officers don’t have the precise to that cash. And should you don’t have the precise to that cash, you don’t have the precise to offer to the Church,” Mendoza stated.
Is the Bachawan parish prepared, ultimately, to observe the lead of Obando Church in Bulacan, which returned a pickup truck donated by dismissed authorities engineer Henry Alcantara? Because the church has been constructed and technically can’t be “returned,” how can it appropriate a probably scandalous scenario?
The flood management scandal shouldn’t be solely a problem for the federal government, but in addition a check of the Church’s soul.
What’s going to it revenue a Church, because the Good Guide goes, if it features its donors however loses its voice? – with experiences from Paolo Cootauco and Jodesz Gavilan/Rappler.com
