INTERVIEW-Philippine priest confirms got cash after Arroyo meet
By Raju Gopalakrishnan
SAN FERNANDO, Philippines, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A Philippine priest-turned-governor who said he was handed a large sum of cash after a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says her administration is seen as corrupt but he does not know if she is.
Eddie Panlilio's admission he was given half a million pesos ($11,365) at the Malacanang palace last week has led to calls from the powerful Catholic church for Arroyo's resignation and provided support for an impeachment complaint against her.
"She has a lot of positive qualities and a lot of negative qualities as well," the former priest, now a politician of five months, said of Arroyo.
"She's very intelligent, she's very determined, she has a very broad outlook and comprehensive knowledge about development and governance," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
But he added: "She's hot-tempered, and whether rightly or wrongly, her administration is perceived to be very corrupt."
Asked if he believed Arroyo herself was corrupt, Panlilio said: "I don't really know."
Newspapers have said officials at the palace handed between 200,000 and 500,000 pesos to each of about 400 lawmakers, governors, and other supporters of Arroyo who came to meet her last week.
Some commentators have said giving cash gifts to allies has not been unknown in the past in Philippine politics, but such incidents are rarely openly discussed. Even this time, few of the other recipients have admitted they were given money.
But Panlilio, called "Among (Father) Ed" by his supporters, said he accepted the money believing it was to be spent on development projects, and that he has now written to Malacanang asking where it came from.
"If Malacanang doesn't admit that the funds came from Malacanang, I will believe that those funds came from a malicious source and they were meant for bad motives, and they should not be used," he said.
"I will return it but the problem is to whom will I return it?"
FIRST FORAY
In a staunchly Catholic nation where priests are much respected, Panlilio's comments set off a storm.
House of Representatives Speaker Jose de Venecia, who is an Arroyo ally but is said to be drifting away from her, called for a probe into the incident and said the president needed to reorganise her cabinet to win back people's trust.
The controversy is the latest in a series of scandals facing Arroyo and analysts say a split with de Venecia, who controls a 95-strong block in the lower house, could be risky for the president, who is facing a fresh impeachment complaint.
At least 80 signatures are needed for an impeachment complaint to progress to the opposition-dominated Senate. Arroyo currently dominates the lower house and defeated two previous impeachment complaints, in 2005 and 2006.
Arroyo's spokesman has said she has ordered her own inquiry into the gifts of money and no public funds were involved.
Panlilio is well known in his province of Pampanga, north of Manila, but this incident has brought him to the national stage.
A parish priest since 1981, he entered politics in May when he stood for governor in Pampanga, also Arroyo's home province. To everybody's surprise, the 53-year-old priest defeated two strong candidates, one the incumbent and the other the wife of a businessman linked to lucrative gambling contracts.
"We had an advocacy for good governance and good citizenship which we offered to the people for their consideration," Panlilio said in the interview at the provincial capital.
"So people prayed over this, mulled over this, decided to go for it."
His early months in administration have been lauded. Tax receipts from sand quarrying, a major industry in Pampanga, reached 29.2 million pesos in July, more than all of last year.
Low collections in previous years have been blamed on corruption.
Panlilio says he's enjoying himself, even if the hours are long, and could well seek a second and even a third term as governor.
"If God wants to me to go on and run for another term, a third term, I would be submissive to him," Panlilio says.
"If I believe God wants me to stop and go back to the church, I want to go back."
SAN FERNANDO, Philippines, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A Philippine priest-turned-governor who said he was handed a large sum of cash after a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says her administration is seen as corrupt but he does not know if she is.
Eddie Panlilio's admission he was given half a million pesos ($11,365) at the Malacanang palace last week has led to calls from the powerful Catholic church for Arroyo's resignation and provided support for an impeachment complaint against her.
"She has a lot of positive qualities and a lot of negative qualities as well," the former priest, now a politician of five months, said of Arroyo.
"She's very intelligent, she's very determined, she has a very broad outlook and comprehensive knowledge about development and governance," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
But he added: "She's hot-tempered, and whether rightly or wrongly, her administration is perceived to be very corrupt."
Asked if he believed Arroyo herself was corrupt, Panlilio said: "I don't really know."
Newspapers have said officials at the palace handed between 200,000 and 500,000 pesos to each of about 400 lawmakers, governors, and other supporters of Arroyo who came to meet her last week.
Some commentators have said giving cash gifts to allies has not been unknown in the past in Philippine politics, but such incidents are rarely openly discussed. Even this time, few of the other recipients have admitted they were given money.
But Panlilio, called "Among (Father) Ed" by his supporters, said he accepted the money believing it was to be spent on development projects, and that he has now written to Malacanang asking where it came from.
"If Malacanang doesn't admit that the funds came from Malacanang, I will believe that those funds came from a malicious source and they were meant for bad motives, and they should not be used," he said.
"I will return it but the problem is to whom will I return it?"
FIRST FORAY
In a staunchly Catholic nation where priests are much respected, Panlilio's comments set off a storm.
House of Representatives Speaker Jose de Venecia, who is an Arroyo ally but is said to be drifting away from her, called for a probe into the incident and said the president needed to reorganise her cabinet to win back people's trust.
The controversy is the latest in a series of scandals facing Arroyo and analysts say a split with de Venecia, who controls a 95-strong block in the lower house, could be risky for the president, who is facing a fresh impeachment complaint.
At least 80 signatures are needed for an impeachment complaint to progress to the opposition-dominated Senate. Arroyo currently dominates the lower house and defeated two previous impeachment complaints, in 2005 and 2006.
Arroyo's spokesman has said she has ordered her own inquiry into the gifts of money and no public funds were involved.
Panlilio is well known in his province of Pampanga, north of Manila, but this incident has brought him to the national stage.
A parish priest since 1981, he entered politics in May when he stood for governor in Pampanga, also Arroyo's home province. To everybody's surprise, the 53-year-old priest defeated two strong candidates, one the incumbent and the other the wife of a businessman linked to lucrative gambling contracts.
"We had an advocacy for good governance and good citizenship which we offered to the people for their consideration," Panlilio said in the interview at the provincial capital.
"So people prayed over this, mulled over this, decided to go for it."
His early months in administration have been lauded. Tax receipts from sand quarrying, a major industry in Pampanga, reached 29.2 million pesos in July, more than all of last year.
Low collections in previous years have been blamed on corruption.
Panlilio says he's enjoying himself, even if the hours are long, and could well seek a second and even a third term as governor.
"If God wants to me to go on and run for another term, a third term, I would be submissive to him," Panlilio says.
"If I believe God wants me to stop and go back to the church, I want to go back."
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