PDIC shells out P12 billion for depositors of Legacy Group

MANILA, Philippines - State-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) has shelled out close to P12 billion to insured depositors of the 12 banks under the Legacy Group as the government continues to run after officials led by bank owner Celso delos Angeles.

In a press release, PDIC said the agency has paid out a total of P11.54 billion to insured depositors of the 12 Legacy banks as of Dec. 12 last year.

Despite the huge pay out, PDIC said it has recovered only P580.97 million worth of assets from the closed banks.

“The PDIC is vigorously pursuing cases against the responsible officials of the Legacy banks to recover the cost of the deposit insurance payouts,” the government-owned deposit insurer stressed.

Delos Angeles together with other bank officials have been charged with several cases of estafa and syndicated estafa cases in relation to the failed operations of the 12 Legacy banks.

However, PDIC lamented that the respondents eluded arraignment last December 13 for an estafa case filed by the agency way back in July 2010 as Delos Angeles remained confined at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

At the time when PDIC filed the charges with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Bacolod City, Delos Angeles was detained in a hospital in Ormoc City in connection with another case previously filed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

While the accused was in Ormoc, his arraignment was postponed repeatedly because of representations that he was not fit to travel from Ormoc City to Bacolod City.

To facilitate the arraignment, records from the RTC Bacolod were transmitted to the RTC Ormoc last June but the case was raffled only last August. 

In the same month, however, Delos Angeles was transferred to a hospital in Tacloban City upon his request. Several arraignments were also subsequently rescheduled due to his alleged inability to travel from Tacloban City to Ormoc City.

Furthermore, the respondent was allowed to travel to Metro Manila for medical treatment under a court order issued by Branch 12 of the RTC Ormoc and is now confined in St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Delos Angeles, together with Alexis Petralba and lawyer Christine A. Cruz-Limpin have been accused of alleged conspiracy to misappropriate the bank’s funds using a farmland in Negros Occidental.

Nation Bank, located in Bacolod City, is one of the 12 Legacy banks owned by Delos Angeles. The Legacy banks are affiliated banks under the Legacy Group, which were almost all simultaneously placed by the Monetary Board under PDIC receivership in December 2008.

The other accused, Petralba and Cruz-Limpin have remained at-large.