Pre-need victims to hold assembly in Bacolod City
BACOLOD CITY -- The Parents Enabling Parents (PEP) Coalition will be holding their Pre-need Assembly in Negros Occidental tomorrow, Saturday, 9 a.m. in the covered court of 888 China Town Mall.
Philip Piccio, national president of the PEP Coalition, said everybody is invited especially the victims of Nation Bank, Legacy, Pacific, Platinum, Papi, TPG, Permanent, Pryce, Phil-Asia and others.
Representatives from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and the office of Senator Mar Roxas will join in the said assembly.
The assembly is organized by PEP Coalition Bacolod Chapter with a purpose to seek unity among the victims of various pre-need companies and to reach out to them.
The highlights of the assembly will be the report by their president on the current status of various actions undertaken by the PEP against the erring pre-need companies and their officers.
Piccio will also tackle the activities of the existing pre-need and pseudo pre-need companies such as hard sell and coercive approach (as practiced by Coco Plans and Danvil Plans), the status of the cases involving Pacific Plans, Pryce, Permanent, CAP, TPG, Platinum Plans, Pet, Papi, Legacy Group (Nation Bank) and the outright pseudo pre-need plans of Phil-Asia Care Plans Inc. and Apo Credit Cooperative.
Piccio exposed that the operations of Phil-Asia Care Plans Inc. and its conversion into the Apo Credit Cooperative is the latest pre-need company described as fraudulent and criminal in nature specially considering that it sold almost 100,000 plans of which only 4,500 plans are registered with the SEC.
It was revealed by Piccio that Apo Credit Cooperative is now operating in the province with an office at Room 256, Plaza Mart Building, Bacolod City.
Based on their research, Phil-Asia Care Plans was up until March 2009, selling affordable bundled memorial and hospitalization plans to the public particularly to market vendors, factory workers, drivers, and similarly situated individuals.
Phil-Asia Care Plans Inc., however never set-up a trust fund for these plans and the premium proceeds were directly deposited into the personal accounts of the owners after expenses.
When the operations of Phil-Asia Care Plans Inc. was finally stopped by SEC, the company converted itself into the Apo Credit Cooperative and continued operating. Both Phil-Asia Care Plans Inc. and Apo Credit Cooperative are controlled by Afulugencia Family and the conversion into a cooperative was done with the help of unscrupulous lawyer and corrupt officer of Cooperative Development Authority, Piccio said.