ROILO GOLEZ URGES STRONGER SEC ACTION ON CAP, OTHER PRE-NEED PLANS

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090427-201751/CAPs-measly-sum-for-plan-holders-slammed

Most plan holders of the College Assurance Plan (CAP) are getting a measly P400 per semester under a rehabilitation program approved by a local court.
About 700,000 plan holders of the pre-need firm have been getting this amount since the pioneering it sought a financial bail-out five years ago, Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez said.
Golez said he was “aghast’’ at the sum being given to the plan holders who made this revelation during Monday’s congressional hearing on the state of the pre-need industry.
“I can feel their frustration. Those that they expected to help them have failed them. It’s like they are being dribbled like a ball until they give up,’’ said Golez in an interview with reporters on Monday.
According to Chit Baita, president of the group of CAP plan holders, the rehabilitation program, CAP has been giving them as little as P400 per semester in the past years as part of the rehabilitation program.
Baita said they have opposed the rehabilitation program because it has allowed CAP to ignore their demands for an immediate refund of at least their premiums just to get their children to school.
Baita claimed that they have sought the help of the SEC in getting their money back from CAP but they were repeatedly turned away by the Securities and Exchange Commission chair Fe Barin who claimed that it was out of their hands since the matter was under the court jurisdiction.
Baita said that while plan holders were getting a measly P400 compensation, she revealed that the receiver has approved the sale of $9 million worth of Mass Rail Transit (MRT) bonds in CAP’s trust fund to pay off companies owned by the pre-need firm’s owners, the Sobrepeña family.
Golez questioned why the court-appointed receiver, Mamerto Marcelo, would agree to the release of CAP’s trust funds when it has not paid off the claims of its plan holders.
Golez was irked that Marcelo snubbed Monday morning’s hearing which he said only showed the lack of compassion of the receiver towards the plan holders.
Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla asked Barin whether this was allowed under the regulations on pre-need companies but the senior official could not give an immediate answer claiming she had to review the matter first.
Padilla said that the SEC should determine whether CAP was guilty of fraud or syndicated estafa when it used its trust funds for the benefit of a related company.