Legacy Philippines: Shards of broken piggy banks

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IF YOU'RE Filipino and nearly as jaded as I am about policymakers and government executives in the Philippines, this article may come with a tinge of lime juice laced with green mango extract. I'm talking about giving Senator Mar Roxas a two-second thumbs up for raising a howl about Philippine regulators' negligence in protecting the interests of ordinary Filipinos who bought pre-need plans from bankrupt Legacy Consolidated Plans. The sob stories of pre-need Legacy education policyholders are nothing new to us Filipinos, but still we need policymakers who show genuine interest in taking up the cudgels of ordinary folks whose piggy banks are as important as lawmakers' political dreams. And yet I say two seconds only because I'm not about to commit to campaigning for Mar when he eventually runs for president. Not yet. After all, Mar was also among few legislators who knew how important it is to keep an eagle's eyes on pre-need firms and yet we still have this most unpleasant disaster unfortunately named Legacy.

The Legacy Group owner, Celso de los Angeles, applied for corporate dissolution of his chain of companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December last year, according to a release by Mar's office. Such a move spells trouble for pre-need policyholders as we all know. But there's something that can make any policyholder seethe with anger now. De los Angeles "admitted to senators he had sold his 55 million pesos real estate in Ayala Alabang shortly before he applied for voluntary dissolution with the SEC." It's like a person selling his house and later telling a friend he could no longer pay his debts because he is bankrupt.

Mar has raised his voice a few decibels higher and has demanded that the Legacy Group owner compensate plan holders and bank depositors and creditors before the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp bail out his bankrupt companies. He has also called on executives of SEC to resign.

The SEC should act now. They should now go to court and ask for an attachment order against Delos Angeles' assets. They are really very slow to act. Do we always have to tell them what to do?), he fumed. Roxas had earlier called on Barin and other SEC officials to resign for their "deliberate" negligence in protecting the interests of pre-need plan holders after their delayed action on the financial difficulties being experienced by pre-need firms.

Mar's track record in the legislative mill as far as protecting the interests of consumers and small investors can be impressive -- that depends on how you look at it, okay? Let me quote a few paragraphs from his About Me webpage:

His heart goes out to consumers who are shortchanged into buying substandard products. He led official probes aimed at strengthening the Consumer Code of the Philippines, the enforcement of proper labeling of goods containing genetically-modified organisms, and stronger safeguards against pyramiding and other similar scams. When the pre-need industry succumbed to a mismanagement-spawned financial crisis that threatened to wipe out the hard-earned investments of hundreds of thousands of consumers, Mar filed the Pre-Need Act of 2005 to improve and strengthen industry regulation and safeguard consumer interest. His leadership continues to provide to provide a sense of security and hope to pre-need plan holders.

So you see, he knows about the pre-need industry and previous unfortunate episodes that dashed the dreams of parents years ago. Crafting a bill and making sure it gets enacted is one thing, watching the executive branch of the government do its job in making sure the law works to its intended purpose is another.

If Mar really wants to be president, he better see to it that the SEC is purged of unwanted personalities. (Corina Sanchez must have already told him that. Team up, guys, for Oplan Legacy Philippines.) If he does it, I will campaign for him in the next presidential elections. Wait, are we sure only the SEC offices smell of fish these days? How about the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and its monetary board? Any ideas? Hmm, let's see.

::: For regular updates on this subject, I recommend you visit Money Smarts. Personal finance editor and blogger Ms Salve Duplito, a parent herself and has experienced dealing with pre-need disasters, is keeping an eye on ongoing probe on Legacy.

::: And, if you're interested in what Mar Roxas would be doing to show his true intentions in the Legacy probe over the next few months (I suppose, not just weeks), there's a blog put together by his supporters who seem to be either media-savvy people or journalists moonlighting as Roxas campaign volunteers. Of course the blog puts Mar's best foot forward, nevertheless it can point to the next steps in the probe.