The constitutionality of the Action of the PCSO: Donation of vehicles to certain catholic bishops

• Main Authors: Crescini, Nelvin Charles L., Fabros, Christopher Lambert M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Commercial Law
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/17794
• Institution: De La Salle University

Separation of church and state is one of main reason on why the government and the church are not in the good condition with each other. They should avoid interfering with the specific job of the other in the country. They have their own principle and rules to follow if and when they can intervene with the country's problem. In this paper, the main issue is the constitutionality of donation of the government (PSCO) to the church for the welfare of the people in rural and remote areas. The issue of Bishops of asking some vehicles to the government became a big problem whether it forms an entanglement between the church and state. The DOA even announced it unconstitutional even if they themselves have no authority to interpret the constitution. Investigating the case makes the public think that asking for the help of the government by the church is immoral and unlawful. This paper will make it clearer the position of church in the society and the action that a government can take if another similar issue will happen. In the first part of the paper, the researchers define the PCSO funds and the public funds whether PCSO funds have the characteristic that can be considered as public funds or public money. The paper also talks about the non-establishment clause that speaks mainly about the State not giving any favor to any religion or discriminating against any particular religion. It also includes the facts of what happened between the PCSO and the 7 Bishops, and the Jurisprudence of America and Philippines, to help conclude the position of this paper. The research concluded that giving donation to the church is constitutional because it considers the main purpose of asking such donation and the benefit that the church received is only incidental to the main purpose of the donation. It is only incidental benefit received by the church in helping poor people in some remote areas. The main purpose of asking such donation is very important to determine whether the action of the PCSO is valid or constitutional. The purpose of asking donation of the Bishops fits to the description of incidental benefit that even though the 7 Bishops benefited incidentally to the donation but the main reason is to help the people in their own diocese then it is constitutional. This research recommends that an action regarding the incidental benefit received by the church should not be given a bigger issue because those donations are for the poor and not for the church. Because of the pressure received by the church, the bishops returned the vehicles and a result, it will affect the poor people in the remote areas of the diocese.