Aquino to unveil mining policy Monday; bishops ready campaign vs mining EO

HAVE all the officials of the RCCh declare their SALN so all the people paying for their keep will know how much they are earning in relation to their rich and famous lifestyles.  Then audit how much the PH RCCh retains from its total collections and how much is remitted outside of the country…all this for the interest and welfare of the People of the Philippines. In addition, investigate and evaluate how priests are given their assignments by the hierarchy..para mawala ang palakasan sa mga naka-helmet at mawala na din ang “buddy-body” intimacy ng mga kinauukulan.  Tapos patingnan sa Comelec at sa SEC kung tumutupad ito sa laws of the land.

Gustong makilaro, e, di palaru-in employing the same rules of the game for everyone. Fair enough?  Just equanimity?  Justice for all?

Quoted from pinoymoneytalk forum:

“For most of us, it’s a given that the Catholic Church is rich. One just has to look at their sprawling acres of land, large Church structures and buildings, and millions of pesos of cash collected from mass goers every week.What a lot of people do not know is that the Church is also a stockholder in several Philippine companies; the total investment in these publicly-listed firms comprise a sizable chunk of its total wealth. Reports submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) show that the Church and affiliate Catholic groups are, in fact, the top stockholders in companies such as the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Philex Mining Corporation (PX), San Miguel Corporation (SMC), Ayala Corporation (AC), and Phinma Corporation (PHN), among others.The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, for example, is the 4th largest owner of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) with more than 300 million shares. How much are these shares worth? As of May 2011, this is valued at more than P17 billion. Yes, that’s seventeen billion pesos, with a B.Aside from banking, the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines is also invested in mining and construction.
As of March 31, 2011, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila is the 15th top shareholder of Philex Mining Corporation (PX), the country’s largest mining firm. It owns 3.2 million shares of PX currently worth more than P66 million.
(Update August 22, 2011: Catholic Church sold all its Philex shares to Manny Pangilinan?)
It is also an investor in Concrete Aggregates Corp. (CA), a supplier of construction materials such as processed aggregates, ready mix concrete and crushed sand. Its investment in CA is currently valued at around P4.5 million.The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila is not the only diocese invested in Philippine stocks. Other dioceses with significant stock investments include:Roman Catholic Bishop of Tuguegarao, Cagayan – owns 856,639 shares of SMC worth P94 million
Roman Catholic Bishop of Nueva Segovia de Vigan – owns 428,067 shares of SMC worth P47 million
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Jaro, Iloilo – owns 491,385 shares of BPI worth a total of P28 million
Roman Catholic Bishop of Tuguegarao, Cagayan – owns 24,015 shares of Ayala Corp worth P9.3 millionAffiliate Catholic groups apparently also have huge investments in Philippine companies. More than P500 million pesos worth of San Miguel Corp (SMC)‘s shares, for example, are owned by three (3) Catholic groups:El Superior de la Corporacion Filipina de Padres Agustinos Recoletos – 2.37 million shares worth P260.7 million
Superior de la Corporacion Archicofradia de N.P.J.N de Recoletos – 1.23 million shares worth P136 million
Carmel of the Divine Infant Jesus of Prague, Inc. – 957,000 shares worth P105 millionAll this talk of the Church’s riches is merely the tip of the iceberg since our compilation below only includes the Church’s investments in PSE-traded firms. We do not know how much more is invested in private entities, in companies outside the Philippines, in bonds, in time deposit accounts, or in real estate properties.We understand that the Church has to invest money in various assets, including stocks, in order to finance and sustain itself. This is actually good since this shows how financially-literate the Church is. What we just hope here at PinoyMoneyTalk is for the Church to take an active role not just in shaping the morality of its people but also in developing a more practical and productive attitude towards money and finance.The weekly Sunday sermons should, therefore, include not just lessons about being morally upright. The Church should also convince mass goers to work and pursue livelihood and to not depend solely on and leave their fate to God (“Ipagpasa-Diyos niyo ang lahat ng inyong mga problema.”).The Church should educate its people about the value of earning, saving, and investing money and should not condone Catholics who are already content in life even if they are penniless (“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”).More importantly, we believe the Catholic Church should play a more pivotal and proactive role in helping solve the ills of the country. The billions of pesos of investments (as seen in the table below) can go a long way in uplifting the lives of poor Filipino people who, admittedly, form the critical mass of supporters of the Catholic Church.Yes, the Church is already doing its share by running hospitals and orphanages, by providing assistance to those who come to them for help, and by offering moral guidance. But they can do more and they should do more. They owe it to the millions of Filipinos who go to Church every Sunday donating their hard-earned cash that the Church now owns.”