A Catholic bishop has called for an inquiry of four nuns allegedly photographed tinkering with slot machines and playing black jack, a card game, during the launch of a gaming complex along Manila's Roxas Boulevard. "I have called on the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for an investigation of the four nuns who belong to the Servants of the Holy Eucharist Order," said Archbishop Oscar Cruz. "I was told that they just tinkered with the slot machines. They were curious. They also sat at tables for black jack. They were not gambling, but the photographs and the TV footages that showed them at the launch of a proposed-gaming complex were shameful," said Archbishop Cruz."The photos caused a big harm to a point that it has scandalised the Catholic Church," the Archbishop fumed. Bishop Antonio Tobias, a known critic of President Gloria Arroyo, accompanied the four nuns. "I don't know why they were there in the first place," Cruz said. Hinting the future of the allegedly erring nuns, Cruz said the CBCP had excommunicated and defrocked a priest who was proven to have gambled in a casino in the province. "The Catholic Church strictly prohibits men of the cloth, and nuns, from gambling. The CBCP has issued a pastoral statement in 2004, that all forms of gambling, whether legal or illegal," he explained.
In response, Edward King, spokesman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, which is behind the project, said, "The sisters played but they did not bet on their money."