Ormoc judge allows delay in start of Legacy case trial

TACLOBAN CITY—The arraignment of the owner of a group of banks charged with scheming to dupe more than 100,000 depositors allegedly through illegal banking practices has been postponed again.

Celso de los Angeles, founder of the Legacy Group, was excused from arraignment proceedings last Monday by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 35 based in Ormoc City after jail officials in Ormoc sent notice that De los Angeles was too ill to travel from here to Ormoc, a distance of at least 100 km.

De los Angeles, stricken with throat cancer, has been confined in a hospital here since June 1.

Executive Judge Apolinario Buaya, of RTC Branch 35, excused De los Angeles from the scheduled arraignment but summoned his doctor at Divine Word Hospital here, Samantha Ruth Baillo, to “explain the health condition of De los Angeles” to the court on Sept. 26.

Meliza Dayandayanan, RTC Branch 35 clerk of court, said Judge Buaya moved the arraignment a week later after receiving word from Jose Repulda, Leyte provincial jail warden, that De los Angeles was unfit to travel.

De los Angeles faces a string of syndicate estafa cases, a non-bailable offense.

He faces one case in Ormoc and another in Bacolod City. He also hasn’t been arraigned in connection with the Bacolod case.

One of the collapsed banks under the Legacy Group, First Interstate Bank, has branches in Bacolod and Ormoc.

De los Angeles was first detained at the sub-provincial jail in Ormoc on Aug. 20 last year after his arrest by members of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

He was transferred to Divine Word Hospital because of his cancer.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) charged him with syndicated estafa following the collapse of the group of banks under his once business empire that included pre-need firms, a credit card company and a car financing firm.

The banks under his collapsed empire were placed under PDIC receivership.

These are Rural Bank of Parañaque, Rural Bank of San Jose (Batangas), Rural Bank of Carmen (Cebu), Pilipino Rural Bank, Philippine Countryside Rural Bank, Rural Bank of Calatagan (Batangas), Rural Bank of DARBCI, Rural Bank of Kananga (Leyte), Rural Bank of Bisayas Minglanilla, San Pablo City Development Bank, Bicol Development Bank, Nation Bank and Rural Bank of Bais.

According to the BSP, the banks had held total deposits of P12 billion but then PDIC president Jose Nograles said they held a combined P14 billion in insured deposits in 132,642 bank accounts.