Mar Roxas should investigate PDIC on 14 billion peso fund re Legacy

Paging would-be vice president Mar Roxas! Legacy is reaping the rewards of ass-licking the powers-that-be in both the palace and the halls of the House of Tong-grease-men, err, Congress.

Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation has been releasing billions of pesos worth of the people's monies (now amounting to more or less 14 billion pesos) to Legacy plan holders and savings account holders allegedly victimized by Legacy owner Celso delos Angeles without proper accounting.

PDIC has refused to release the list of those given the sums of money.

Mr. Senator Roxas, you who spearheaded the quest to throw Celso and his cohorts behind bars, should finish what you started. Call for an inquiry into the PDIC action. This is totally unfair to us, taxpayers and depositors. And if you find something anomalous, charge them and immediately send these people to the gallows, err, jail!

By the way, why is Celso still in the hospital and all of his other cohorts still roaming the Philippines free as a bird? These people who created this billion peso mess should be thrown in jail!

We have been had for the nth time by Celso and his gang members, lulling us to complacency, asking us to give Celso some compassion for being "sick", while maneuvering to steal from us billions of pesos more!

This is tooo much!

Legacy: How do you want to be remembered?

In the not too distant future, expect to see some of those prominent names in the gallery of Congress in the obituary page of your favorite newspaper. Most of Philippine democracy's veteran fighters are ageing. Some have faded into oblivion, while others continue to serve us, albeit, without us really appreciating their work. Others, well, they all went away, either due to sickness (most Senators die of cancer) or old age.

Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile is now 85 years old. Senator Joker Arroyo turned 82 last January 5. While last termer Senator Aquilino Pimentel is turning 76 by December.

Former president Fidel Valdes Ramos just turned 82, a tad younger than Enrile last March 18. These men figured prominently in our history for the last twenty years, all ran and won the confidence of the Filipino People after EDSA Uno.

Enrile and Ramos both launched the coup that changed Filipino history. Arroyo and Pimentel served under the revolutionary government after sacrificing their very futures just to uphold democracy. Most of their contemporaries have either faded to retirement (former Vice President Teofisto Guingona is one) while others, well, already died.

All of them are heroes. They continually hold the trust and confidence of the people simply because of their sterling record of public service. They all mouth the same desire for change. Yet, in all of those twenty years after EDSA uno, nothing has ever changed.

I wonder if these people ever think of going to a beach or a mountain and contemplate on what people would say as eulogies.

Will Enrile be remembered for his role as the defense secretary who defected to the other side at the last minute or will he be remembered for his staunch campaign against telecommunications companies?

How about Joker? Will people remember him as that fiery human rights lawyer of old who defended the defenseless and weak or his present role as an apologist of Mrs. Arroyo?

And speaking about Pimentel, how would he like to be remembered? As that strong-willed mayor of a town in faraway Mindanao or that senator who defended Senator Manny Villar against attacks by another colleague?

Lastly, how does FVR want to be remembered? As the general who jumped for joy after seeing his cousin leave office or the former head of state who nearly brought back the old glory of the Motherland? Or that ex-president who enjoys the tag as the most travelled one or a former head of state who stood his ground against forces critical of Mrs. Arroyo and even condoned the sins of this administration?

These men are, as they say, in their last days on earth. Will people be sad or happy? Will people curse them for promising much yet delivering so little? Or, will the People mourn their passing?

For Filipinos, Legacy is such a brutal word. Since the Legacy scandal broke out, Filipinos now see this word in a very bad light. What are the legacies of our present leaders? Are their legacies like those broken promises of Celso de los Angeles? It seems like it.

Abusive Companies

Is it weak government or a weak and powerless people that is the problem?

Look, we have right now a very serious problem of power. Pre-need companies are folding left and right and asking government billions of our money to prop them up.

Legacy group of companies have been stricken out of the major broadsheets. For the past few weeks, nothing has been heard about it. Is Legacy now being given 14 billion pesos from PDIC funds without accountability? PDIC executives should be reminded that those monies came from taxes, the people's money. They must not toy with it.

AMAPLans and other pre-need companies are reporting huge losses, probably because they too think that they can get away with murder by diluting their trust funds and asking government to give them money to prop those funds up. They are cooking us with our own fat!

What had happened to the plus 40 billion pesos stimulus fund that the SSS intends to give businesses and banks? These funds are also public money. No news means danger.

We have companies like SMART which funds a very secretive online movement called AKO MISMO. AKO MISMO is being charged with phishing activities, an illegal and IMMORAL THING. AKO MISMO is reportedly not only a very deceptive marketing ploy---it also allegedly intends to sell personal information of its members to the highest political bidder. AKO MISMO is playing the nationalist card while collating data that it allegedly intends to sell.

We have senators that break the law by not subjecting themselves to self-quarantine---a procedure required in times of health crisis in all countries.

We have a vindictive group of grafters and evildoers that uses the law as their shield against criticism and spends public money to pursue injustice against those who seek the truth.

We have journalists like Che-che Lazaro (more on this later) who now faces a wiretapping charge for allegedly presenting an interview she got from a GSIS senior official.

Lastly, we have an MultiNational Company acting like a bully and disrespecting even our former presidents! Nestle Philippine CEO Nandu Nandiskore should be expatriated immediately for embarrasing his company and by committing unprofessional acts.

Is it weak government or we have a weak and powerless people? In other countries, issues like these immediately merit a proper and judicious response.

If we are in Singapore, that Legacy owner would have been hanged already. Owners of pre-need companies who diluted their trust funds would have gotten the same treatment and worst, not allowed to be buried.

That AKO MISMO site would have been immediately stricken out of the netsphere and officials charged.

Che-Che Lazaro would have been hailed a hero.

And Nandu expatriated with his head bowed.

Legacy owner--campaign contributor of Gloria Arroyo?

In the recent Senate hearing on the Legacy scam issue, Senator Mar Roxas thundered why the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the SEC failed to prosecute Legacy owner Celso delos Angeles.

The good senator seems to insinuate that delos Angeles enjoys the protection of the high and mighty.

Since 1985, Delos Angeles was already blacklisted by the BSP yet managed to return to the banking sector.

Some say, the closeness between Delos Angeles and Speaker Prospero Nograles explains it, since even the brother of the Speaker was appointed as PDIC President.

Some even surmised that this Legacy thing is really a big syndicated racket, really designed to fail, so that Delos Angeles and his associates in the syndicate would be able to get 14 billion pesos of public money.

Imagine, Delos Angeles just invested a few millions to acquire certain banks and put it under the Legacy bank network. He then, crafted this double your money scheme to entice more depositors. When they collected these deposits, they then maneuvered to spread these deposits to other banks under the Legacy bank network, cutting them down into comfortable 250,000 peso accounts.

The PDIC meanwhile, said that 6.5 billion worth of Legacy bank deposits are questionable ones, suggesting that most probably these are just proxy deposits meant to defraud government of money.

Yet, despite these, PDIC is still willing to finance 14 billion of the people's money to finance the deposits of some 140,000 depositors.

Quite questionable, is'nt?

Why is it that delos Angeles remains a freeman until now? Why is government still adamant or refuses to arrest him and throw him in jail?

A lawyer friend of mine provided me an answer---Celso delos Angeles is a big contributor to the campaign kitties of certain officials, including.....Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

What Malacanang officials fear is the potential expose of certain receipts and documents showing campaign contributions of Mr. delos Angeles to certain personalities.

What if there's a pandora's box of statements which bear the code names of certain government officials, including Arroyo's?

This is starting to get really interesting. More on this in later entries.

SAL of Legacy Owner should be used against him

There is one fact that the government should use against Celso delos Angeles Jr. to pin down this alleged schemer---tax cases and violation of the Local Government Code of the Philippines. As a public servant, Celso delos Angeles Jr. is mandated by law to divulge his assets and liabilities. That SAL should be checked by the authorities to see if there are anomalous entries there that would merit a case.

Likewise, what about tax payments? If delos Angeles has billions of pesos in assets, surely, if he is a dutiful citizen, file and pay the proper and necessary taxes? Did he pay the proper taxes?

Some people suggested that forfeiture proceedings should be used against Celso so that he'll not be able to dispose of his properties while an investigation is ongoing. That, I believe, is the right approach. Malacanang should form a special investigation panel and within thirty days, issue a resolution.

What's important at this point is for Malacanang to show to the people that it is hard on those who violate the law. They should sacrifice Boy Sese.