Cebu hearing on banks' closure sought

CEBU – Provincial Board Member Victor Maambong is asking the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries to hold the hearing on the closure of the rural banks under the Legacy Group of Companies in Cebu.

In a proposed resolution, Maambong said that since most of the affected depositors hail from Cebu, the hearing of the Congress should be conducted here.

“The imperatives simple fairness and elementary justice would dictate that all Cebuano depositors (of the Legacy banks) whose lives and fortunes are now imperiled should be heard and be informed of all the proceedings and processes that may furnish them with any forms of redress,” Maambong wrote in his proposed resolution.

Maambong said the lives of affected depositors of the padlocked banks, which include overseas Filipino workers and market vendors, are now in “pathetic jeopardy.”

The House committee on banks and financial intermediaries started its hearing on the closure of several rural banks under the Legacy group on Thursday last week.

The House members are still looking into the reason for the collapse of the rural banks under the Legacy group. The House committee approved Speaker Prospero Nograles’ bill increasing from P250,000 to P500,000 the government’s maximum deposit insurance coverage for every depositor.

The fiasco “deserves the most searching inquiry and the most condign punishment as the laws may see fit against officers and directors,” Maambong said.

He has also asked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to look into the sudden closure of rural banks in Cebu.

The Legacy-affiliated banks ordered closed by BSP and been placed under receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation include Rural Bank of Parañaque, Rural Bank of Bais (in Oriental Negros province), Rural Bank of San Jose (in Batangas), Dynamic Bank (Rural Bank of Calatagan in Batangas), San Pablo City Development Bank, Nation Bank (in Bacolod City), and the Bank of East Asia, Pilipino Rural Bank, and Philippine Countryside Bank, all in Cebu. — Garry B. Lao/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)