Over 400 file syndicated estafa case vs execs of pre-need firm

More than 400 plan holders of the defunct Pacific Plans Inc. (PPI) and its replacement company Abundance Providers and Entrepreneurs Corporation (APEC) on Monday filed a complaint for syndicated estafa against its officials before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Named in the complaint are the firms’ top executives including Alfonso Yuchengco, Alfonso Yuchengco III, Ambrosio Padilla, George Dee, Helen Dee, Paul Sycip and thirty others.

A total of 840 counts of syndicated estafa by means of deceit and another 840 counts of syndicated estafa by abuse of confidence were filed before the DOJ.

The complainants also filed 77 cases specific to Lifetime Plans only.

“Our common aspiration is for us to be able to regain what we lost because of the way our money were managed by the Yuchengo businesses,” one of the complaints said.

The complainants invested various amounts to the company to as high as P6-million for various top level educational and pension plans.

In the complainant who invested P6-million was only offered P400,000 as settlement while others were offered P1,400 for a P100,000 pension plan.

“They offered me P400 thousand for my investment… Not only is it a farce, it is also a huge insult,” one of the complainants said.

“We are focusing all our efforts to delivering this case to court and getting the justice the disenfranchised plan holders deserve,” lawyer Joshua Santiago, PAP-LCG counsel, said.

In 2004, the group said PPI unilaterally transferred the assets and liabilities of its pension, memorial, and fixed-value educational plans to a new company, Lifetime Plans.

Two months later, Lifetime Plans sold its stake in PPI to GPL Holdings, Inc. — another Yuchengco family company — for the declared book value.

Then, in early 2009, GPL Holdings Inc. sold PPI to businessman Noel Oñate who bought it for P250 million.

The complainants said they were only informed of the takeover through letters sent via mail, which they considered “highly suspicious.”

No explanation or detailed reasons were given for the change of the company but the move was considered “highly suspicious.”

The class suit by the Pacific-APEC Plans Legal Complaint Group is not the first time plan holders have tried to recover their lost investments. A complaint was filed in 2009. However, it was dismissed by the DOJ in a 2013 resolution for lack of probable cause.

The 2009 complaint was filed by plan holder Victoria Gomez Jacinto against former ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco, Helen Yuchengco-Dee, Alfonso Yuchengo III and Yvonne Yuchengco. JE