One of the Catholic Bishops involved in the PCSO fund mess had millions of stock at one of the country’s largest conglomerates, Ayala Corporation. Tuguegarao Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan held an estimated stocks of 0.0049 percent of the total shares of the company.
According to the documents obtained by GMA News Network from the Philippine Stock Exchange, the controversial bishop ranked 73rd among the top 100 shareholders of the Ayala Corporation. The company which was owned by the family of Ayala, Roxas and Zobel was one of the largest and the oldest companies in the Philippines.
The estimated value of ownership by the archbishop was recorded at around P8 Million worth of shares. His total number of shares were 24,000 common shares of Ayala Corp. The controversy involving the bishops was another blew to the Roman Catholic community and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The controversial fund was given to the Archbishop of Tuguegarao during the occasion of his 25th anniversary as a Bishop which was granted by the then President Gloria M. Arroyo after a personal letter from the Bishop was given to the President. PSCO had granted an amount which was undisclosed during the term of PCSO director Ma. Fatima Valdes.
Tuguegarao Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan was just one of the Bishop who were involved in holding shares of stocks that was listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange. According to PSE records there were other archbishops and archdiocese which had shares of stock in companies such as the Bank of the Philippine Islands, PAL, San Miguel and Philex Mining.
Meanwhile the Archbishop of Manila had shares of stock with the Bank of the Philippine Islands which was valued at P17.3 billion representing 6.266 percent of the bank’s outstanding shares. Archbishop of Zamboanga had shares of stocks in PHILEX. There were two accounts representing Archbishop of Zamboanga and Religious of the Virgin Mary worth 8.5 million shares of the group in the mining firm amount to more than P200 million.
The controversy involving the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office surfaced after some of the Bishops returned the controversial vehicles to the PCSO when they were called by the Senate for an investigation of PCSO fund mess.