IOPC letter re claims is fake--Coscolluela
Coscolluela
Secretary Rafael Coscolluela, Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas is advising the second batch of claimants from Guimaras that there is no truth to the rumor that their claims have been approved and will be paid this June.
The Secretary made this clarification in view of an alleged letter bearing the forged signature of Mr. Joe Nichols of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC) which "informs" local officials of Guimaras that the second batch of claimants will be paid this June.
The IOPC has denied sending out such letter. The claims are still being processed and when such claims are ready to be paid, an announcement will be paid at the proper time.
Secretary Coscolluela strongly condemns the malicious prank and asks the author/s to desist from misleading the claimants and public officials concerned. He said that the IOPC is very careful in processing the new claims because of the possibility of double claims, overstated claims or even spurious claims.
It may be recalled that IOPC had expressed doubts about the validity of many of the new claims due to the extremely high number of claims that had been endorsed to them. More than 110,00 claims were filed under the second batch, very much higher than the claims filed under the first batch.
So far, the IOPC has approved a total of 11,214 claims from Guimaras and 11,355 claims from Iloilo Province.
(PIA6)