“Celso has maintained all along that he will not turn his back on his clients and investors and has promised to pay them all – all in good time.”
by Ducky Paredes
Is Celso de los Angeles. aka Boy, of the troubled Legacy Group of Companies and the mayor of the Municipality of Sto. Domingo, Albay guilty? Most would say: “Yes!”
Lately, Celso has been in the news following the closure of the ten Legacy owned banks and the Legacy pre-need companies. The story that is emerging is that both the banks and the Legacy group itself were part of a scam that has impoverished mostly middle-class persons who worked hard to amass the funds that they lost.
What Celso has going for him is that, instead of running away and hiding, he has been present at all hearings of both houses of Congress which are investigating the circumstances and the culpability of those behind the failure of the banks and pre-need companies.
He has, so far, also given his full cooperation to all government agencies looking into the operations of Legacy.
Celso has maintained all along that he will not turn his back on his clients and investors and has promised to pay them all – all in good time.
While this is a common refrain we hear from those who cheat us — a stockbroker from my Rotary club took a big chunk from me and about a dozen other Rotarians recently and has been telling us that his money that he will use to pay us back will be coming in soon, week after interminable week — Celso also makes no secret of his future political plans to seek higher office at the provincial level in Albay.
His supporters say that even before the problems of Legacy, de los Angeles had already been the target of political intrigue at the highest levels of the Albay provincial LGU.
He has been linked to illegal jueteng but until now, these have remained allegations with no proof at all.
During the Legacy hearings in the Senate, Celso has been used as a tool for political grandstanding by politicians seeking the highest office in the land.
At the height of this controversy, personalities with questionable agenda also joined the posse against de los Angeles, particularly, Philip Piccio of the PEP Coalition. Piccio produced witnesses whose credentials are also doubtful and who may be as culpable, or maybe even more so, than De los Angeles. The two “witnesses” are the ones responsible for the daily operations of the failed Legacy pre-need companies and are themselves respondents of the criminal charges filed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) against Legacy executives.
In the din of these hearings, a group of Legacy plan holders has issued a quiet appeal to all to please stop making Legacy a political issue. Instead, they ask the congressmen and senators to focus on helping the Legacy plan holders recover their investments.
But, why should Senators hold back on Celso de los Angeles and, instead, help the Legacy plan holders when the senators are getting so much great political mileage by dumping on Celso de los Angeles?
De los Angeles has assumed full responsibility for the Legacy fiasco and has maintained that he will stand by whatever the courts decide on this issue. Should we take his word at face value or should we encourage the senator with the presidency on his mind to continue milking the Legacy issue for all it is worth?
At this point in time, it is time for clarity which will not come as long as politicians are doing the investigating. They do what they do to earn political and popularity points, not necessarily to get at the truth. It is time for the ones that should have been doing the investigation – the BSP, the SEC and the DOJ – to take this over and get to the bottom of things. As for Celso de los Angeles, he apparently a lot going for him; but, if he is guilty as many more believe, let justice prevail. That will not happen as long as the investigating is being done by Senate committees.
These only tend to delay moment when the slow wheels of our justice system can begin turning.
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What is Celso de los Angles guilty of? Five Legacy bank presidents and two BSP investigators point to Carolina Hinola and Namnama Pasetes as the ones who directed them to siphon funds from their rural banks.
In the cases filed by BSP before the Department of Justice, affidavits of the five presidents of the closed Legacy banks pointed to Hinola and Pasetes as the one who ordered them to siphon funds from their banks.
“During my stint as president of the bank (First Interstate Bank-Leyte), Ms. Namnama Pasetes and Ms. Carol Hinola, Chief Finance Officer and Chief Executive Officer, respectively of Legacy Plans, Inc. (LCPI) would instruct me to deposit P100,000 per month to the account of LCPI to be taken from the funds of the bank,” Mabini Urgelles Sanico swore to in her affidavit. “Also, at any given time, depending on the availability bank funds, Ms. Pasetes and Ms. Hinola, would direct me to take out bank funds ranging P200,000 to P1,500,000 to be deposited to the account of LCPI.”
William Lucero Escalante, Rural Bank of DARBCI, Inc. President says: “From the time that I was appointed as the Officer-in-Charge of Rural Bank of DARBCI, Inc. and even when I became the president of the bank, Ms. Namnama Pasetes and Ms. Carolina Hinola, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Executive Officer respectively of Legacy Plans, Inc. would oftentimes instruct me, to take out funds from the bank, ranging from P200,000 to more than P1,000,000 and to deposit the same to the account of LCPI. As I consider Ms. Pasetes and Ms. Hinola my superiors, they being the high-ranking officers of LCPI — the entity that controls the bank, I have no other choice but to follow their instructions.”
The other bank presidents whose affidavits were included in the BSP filed cases were Ernest Carmel Jurado, Bank of East Asia president; Maria Angela Hojilla, Nation Bank Inc. general manager; and Karen Pitoy, Rural Bank of Carmen-Cebu.
The BSP investigators who looked into the closed banks corroborate the statements of the bank presidents.
Michael R. Cucio and Jeffrey James C. Abas, lawyers-investigators of the BSP Office of Special Investigation, also said in their joint affidavit said that Hinola and Pasetes were both behind the “aggressive marketing deposit-generation of the Legacy Banks” and the siphoning of funds.
“Respondent Hinola, the Chief Executive Officer of LCPI, among others, also instructed FIB President Sanico to withdraw funds from First Interstate Bank and deposit the same in the account of LCPI. Hinola also participated in the aggressive marketing deposit-generation of the Legacy Banks, enticing the public to deposit their moneys with the Legacy Banks. In order to facilitate the siphoning of the funds under FIB’s motorcycle loan program, respondent Hinola, together with respondent Pasetes, had instructed FIB President Sanico to transfer the funds of LMI at FIB to the Banco de Oro Accounts of LCPI and LMI,” BSP’s Cucio reports.
Bank officers, whether of rural or other banks, ought to know better. Under the regulations of the BSP, these bank presidents are not allowed to take any funds out of their banks except as stipulated by these regulations – by withdrawals by clients from their accounts. Why they allowed Legacy to order them to disregard banking regulations is something that they will have to explain to a judge and to the BSP.
Can these bank officers or the prosecutors connect the missing funds to Celso de los Angeles? Is there a money or paper trail that leads to Celso de los Angeles?
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hvp 03.30.09)
2 Comments
Celso G de los Angeles is not good to his word!
Back in October 2008, Checks drawn on Bank Accounts of ‘Legacy Card Inc. in EastWest Bank, started ‘bouncing’.
Celso ‘promised’ replacement Checks would be issued. he added 3%pa would be added to the face value of the Checks, as compensation for the delay.
We should not have trusted him vut filed BP22 Estafa cases after sending Demand Letters after he ignores such to provide alternative payment within 5 days.
Me and my wife handed over 11 x PDC’s drawn on UnionBank and EastWest Bank accounts, also under Account Name ‘One Realty Corporation’. These totaled Php487,500.00.
Celso promised conversion to ‘90 Day CTD’s’ with ‘Rural Bank of Polangui’ and was authorized and arranged by Carolina Hinola. With cash addition of Php12,500 direct to the MetroBank A/C of RB of Polangui, they issued CTD of Php250K in my name and that of my wife. We had already submitted the completed and signed forms together with Specimen Signature cards and copies of valid ID, and ID Photos.
What is more they paid Php5,000 each into our Joint Account in MetroBank. This being the 10%pa Nett Interest after 20% Withholding Tax deducted, on the 2 x 90 Day CTD’s.
But come Maturity Date of 22nd January 2009, RB of Polangui stated they woul;d only pay the Php12,500 being the cash Deposit against these 2 x Php250K Deposits. RB of Polangui ‘claim’ they never received payment against those 11 x PDC’s worth Php487,500.00.
In that case why did the Bank, issue the CTD’s, and pay the Interestin Advance. They certainly never informed us of any ‘bounced Checks’ nor made any effort to return these 11 x Checks totaling Php487,500 so we could file BP22 cases against them.
Celso is a CON/SCAM artist, and as such one can not trust him. If he genuinely wanted to help Investors /Depositors, then where were those replacement checks, where was the payments into the banks to fund the conversion to CTD?
Why have these filed Cases of Syndicated Estafa, for which there is no BAIL, not put him in Jail?
Because suddenly he claims to have developed Satage 4 Cancer of the Tonsil?
What happened to Stagesd 1/2/3 and no mention of this ‘illness’ during the Senate Court Hearings? He used the excuse of his Mother being ill not to show up at one hearing. You think if he genuinely had Cancer, at that stage his Lawyers would not have reported that rather than use his Mothers illness as the reason for not attending?
Where was the DNA Test on the biopsy tissue sample, that was diagnosed as Cancer to prove it came from Celso?
Why is the DOJ not asking such Questions?
Why has it all gone quiet on the prosecution of Celso?
I heard from a very reliable information from an investor that Celso De Los Angeles is going in and out of the St. Lukes Hospital to visit his hometown in Sto. Domingo, Albay. Sources also said that he is just malingering in St. Lukes Hospital. The 20 days given by St. Lukes Hosptital for him to be confine concluded. He is supposed to be brought here in Cagayan De Oro City by virtue of the warrant of arrest. I do not know what keeps him out in Cagayan De Oro City.
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