Depositors slam LBC, Central Bank, PDIC; new meet set

THE Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. assured angry depositors of the closed LBC Development Bank that their deposits would be given to them in a day.

The assurance, however, failed to satisfy depositors, who called for another meeting next week.

The depositors wanted not only the PDIC representatives to be present but also those from the LBC Bank and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Lawyer Joneses Ponce, Cebu City consultant, assured investors that he would organize the meeting with the different parties present next week.

Nathaniel Tumbokon, PDIC representative,  said  PDIC would adopt the payout scheme used to pay the Banco Filipino depositors.

Tumbokon, however, didn’t give a time frame for the processing of the claims but only said it would be processed at the LBC Bank Gorordo Branch in Cebu City.

The PDIC distributed claim forms to the depositors during the meeting.

Lawyer Servino Maceren, a bank depositor and a former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president, criticized the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the PDIC for not warning the public about the bank closure.

Maceren, who was a  victim of the Legacy Bank closure, said both government agencies  were supposed to be guardians of the people’s money.

“If they see that the banks are already not in good condition, they should help to rehabilitate it. If later on, the rehabilitation does not work, they should advise the public prior to the closure so they will know what to do,” he said.

Dutch National Dick Detering, who is also a Legacy Bank closure victim, said he didn’t trust the PDIC anymore.

He said he was a victim of the closure of the bank of the Legacy Group of Companies and the PDIC hadn’t even paid half the millions of pesos he invested.

“Every time we call their office in Manila, up to now, they make us wait for two and a half hours on the phone, and at the end of it they will only say that they do not know anything,” he said.

Another depositor, Virginia Kintanar, said the BSP and the PDIC should be the ones to be blamed for the bank closure since they served as regulating bodies of the banking industry.

Meanwhile, Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu 2nd district) said he would support the proposal of Rep. Luigi Quisumbing (Cebu 6th district) to conduct a House inquiry on the stability of banks in the country after the closure of the LBC Bank.

Garcia said yesterday that there was a need to prove why these banks failed.

Quisumbing earlier said he submitted House Bill No. 1729, which would call  for the review of present standards and banking regulations of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. /Carine M. Asutilla, Correspondent with a report from Correspondent CArmel Loise Matus