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This picture was taken in Barangay Lacub, Batac, Ilocos Norte on Sept. 6, 2008 by a member of PMA82sandigans.
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Updates on Danvil Plans and Other Pre-need Firms from March to May 2009
March 13-19
At the Senate hearing on pre-need firms, former Legacy executive Carolina Hinola accused SEC Commissioner Jesus Enrique Martinez of covering up Legacy’s financial problems after accepting gifts from Legacy, including a 5-million-peso house and lot and a 1.5-million Ford Expedition from Legacy head Celso de Los Angeles.
Insiders also claimed that Martinez tried to broker the sale of Danvil Plans to the Legacy Group. The sale did not push through after Danvil Plans backed out of the deal allegedly upon the advice of other top pre-need executives.
(Martinez died on May 6 due to colon cancer complications.)
April 21
SEC has canceled the license of Prudentialife Plans Inc. to sell preneed plans because of its trust fund deficiency.
Prudentialife however said that its estimated trust fund of 12 billion pesos is enough to cover its obligations to about 400,000 planholders.
Prudentialife said it is still allowed to sell their other products like life insurance, health plans and mutual funds. Prudentialife President Jose Alberto Alba insisted that his firm will survive the crisis because of its 31-year history of strong performance, including survival of the CAP collapse and the 1997-1998 crisis.
April 22
Permanent Plans or Permaplans has decided to stop its operations because of trust fund losses in 2008. In response, SEC canceled Permaplans’ license. Permaplans said it will pay all its planholders (about 10,800) in the form of cash and other types of assets in the next 4 to 6 months.
April 27
Paranaque Representative Roilo Golez condemned CAP for giving only about 400 pesos per sem to most of about 700,000 CAP planholders under a court rehabilitation program.
Chit Baita, head of a group of CAP planholders, questioned court-appointed receiver Mamerto Marcelo for allowing CAP to sell its MRT III bonds and use the proceeds to pay off other firms owned by CAP owners, the Sobrepenas, instead of using the money to pay planholders.
May 1
CAP responded to the report that it is giving out only 400 to 500 pesos per sem to planholders by announcing that it has paid over 220 million to planholders since 2007 and that it is following court-approved schedules for paying planholders in installments up to 2011 and then full payments starting 2012.
CAP instructed planholders to check its list of 147,000 planholders on its website www.cap.com.ph for 334,000 checks ready for release.
May 1
Investigators said fraudulent schemes and fund diversions led to the collapse of Legacy’s banks and pre-need firms. Legacy’s pre-need firms owe about 1.3 billion pesos to its estimated 50,000 pre-need planholders, including more than 12,000 soldiers and police officers who have paid over 320 million pesos through monthly salary deductions by the AFPSLAI.
May 6
Coco Plans said it has 1.4 billion in its trust fund and it is able to cover maturing policies within the next 9 years, according to Coco Plans president
Caesar Michelena. He said the deficiency of 190 million will be covered within 3 years under a program submitted to the SEC.
May 7
The SEC announced that three preneed firms — Coco Plans, AMA Plans and Danvil Plans — had trust fund deficiencies. Coco Plans and Danvil Plans have
already submitted their plans on how they can restore their trust funds to adequate levels.
May 7
Caesar Michelena, president of Coco Plans and newly-elected head of the Philippine Federation of Pre-need Plan Companies, expressed his hope that no more pre-need company will shut down.
Previous PFPPC President Juan Miguel Vasquez resigned after his firm Permanent Plans decided to cease operations.
May 7
Some Permanent Plans planholders complained at the Senate hearing that Permaplans is offering a 60/40 payment scheme — 40 percent of their maturity value in cash and 60 percent in food and health supplies and lots at a burial site in Payatas.
In a statement made on April 22, Permanent Plans President Juan Miguel Vazquez reiterated that the contracts held by Permaplans planholders allow the company to change the mode of settlement or payment of plans.
May 7
PDIC President Jose Nograles revealed at the Senate hearing that there are still more than 35,000 unclaimed bank accounts under the failed Legacy Group. Senator Mar Roxas asked PDIC to inform the depositors through the mail.
May 12
President Arroyo ordered SEC Chair Fe Barin to determine the financial condition of the preneed firms to ensure that they can meet their obligations
as the plans mature. Arroyo demanded that criminal prosecution be taken against erring firms.
May 13
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said there are loopholes in the law of receivership, allowing failed pre-need firms and other businesses such as condo developers to walk away from their obligations.
May 14
Coco Plans announced that it has paid all its obligations to all its educational planholders this school year.
May 17
The SEC assured pre-need planholders that the 22 licensed preneed firms, including Danvil Plans, are financially stable enough to pay their obligations to their planholders. SEC said it has reviewed the financial records of the pre-need firms.
The 22 pre-need firms with licenses to sell plans this year include AMA Plans, Ayala Plans, Caritas Financial Plans, CityPlans, Cocoplans, Danvil Plans, Destiny Financial Plans, Eternal Plans, First Country Plans, First Union Plans, Grayline Plans, Himlayang Pilipino Plans, Loyola Plans Consolidated, Manulife Financial Plans, Mercantile Careplans, Paz Memorial Service, Philam Plans, Provident Plans International, St. Peter Life Plan, Sun Life Financial Plans, Transnational Plans and Trusteeship Plans.
May 19
About 525,000 educational planholders have been trying to get money for their children’s enrolment this school year from 5 failed pre-need firms: CAP, Pet Plans, Platinum Plans, Pacific Plans and TPG Corp.
Meanwhile, Pryce Plans, still solvent but low on cash because it invested in real estate, memorial lots and listed equities, has been issuing checks in queues and paying in kind to consenting planholders.
May 27
President Macapagal-Arroyo returned the SEC under the supervision of DTI, nine years after she placed SEC under DOF. Observers said the transfer was caused by SEC’s failure to prevent the collapse of preneed companies owned by Legacy.
May 29
SEC has required pre-need firms to increase the percentages of their trust fund deposits. For every peso paid by a pension and education planholder during the first year, the pre-need firm must deposit 70 cents, a big increase from the previous 5-cent requirement. This requirement will apply only to new plans. Required increases percentages for other plans were also issued.
Above notes were gleaned from various articles and videos published on Inquirer.Net and GMANews.TV.
Two Planholders of Danvil Plans Who Have Already Collected Their Maturity Benefits
These are comments from two planholders of Danvil Plans who have already filed their claims, got their checks and have encashed them.
From planholder Hill:
February 16
Planholder din ako ng Danvil Plans and in fact magma-mature na ang plan ko this March 2009. One last payment na lang sa March 1 ang kulang.
February 21
Originally, 5 years to pay and 10 years after ang maturity yung plan ko pero I had it changed to 10 years to pay. Kaya, March 1, 2009 ang last payment at sa March 25, 2009 naman yung maturity date nung plan ko. Kaya nga inaayos ko na ang mga requirements.
OFWs, Parents, Take Advantage of Free Internet Banking to Manage Your Children’s Weekly Allowance
If you’re a parent whose high-school or college-age kid is living in a dorm or studying in another city or an OFW who likes to control your child’s weekly allowance, take advantage of free Internet banking services offered by local banks.
Most large banks now in the Philippines offer free Internet banking, and they offer lots of services that prompts you to say Wow.
However, in this article, I would describe only two, BPI Express Online and My BDO Internet Banking, because they’re the ones I use.
1. If you already have accounts with BPI and/or BDO, then you’ve
done the first step. Your savings account or checking account
would become the wallet from which you would get money to give
to your child weekly.
2. Next is to get an ATM card for your child, or ATM cards if you have more than one child to support.
If you get a regular ATM card, you are required to maintain a balance — 2,000 for a BDO account; 1,000 for a BPI Family account or 3,000 for a BPI account.
For most children, this maintaining balance is a temptation — a cake on the table ready to be consumed.
So the best option is to get a BPI Express Cash Card or a BDO Cash Card. Both of these ATM cards do not require a maintaining balance.
You can get a BDO Cash Card for only 120 pesos or a BPI Express Card for only 120 pesos also.
For OFWs, a better account is available — BDO Kabayan Savings. It only has a 100-peso maintaining balance, and it has other benefits too. More info for this account here.
OFWs can also get a BDO Remit Cash Card. More info on this here.
3. Then enroll your BPI savings or checking account with BPI Express Online or your BDO account with MyBDO Internet Banking. You can enroll online and then print the filled out form to be submitted or sent to BDO or BPI. Or you can just go to your bank branch.
Just prepare your user name and password and be ready with your account number and your BDO or BPI cash card numbers.
4. After your Internet banking account is activated, you can plan and schedule when and how much money to put into your child’s cash card.
If your child needs 200 a day, you can reload your child’s cash card 1,200 or 1,500 every week. Just adjust the amounts when your child needs to pay the dorm or buy something.
Just tell your child that the minimum withdrawal for BPI Express Cash is 500 pesos and for BDO Cash Card, it is 200. Tell them to withdraw as much as possible from these banks’ ATMs to avoid ATM charges (around 10 pesos for each withdrawal).
5. For OFWs, Internet banking can save you remittance costs and
at the same time prevent your children from having access to large amounts of money, which can be tempting. One-day millionaires among OFW children are common.
You don’t have to send money every month or every week. Just remit an adequate amount to your savings account and then transfer controlled amounts to your kids’ accounts as often as you like without paying any transfer fee.
For more details:
BDO Kabayan Savings, BDO Remit Cash Card for OFWs
BDO Kabayan Savings for OFWs
This is a special savings account for OFWs and their families in the Philippines.
You can open an account here in the Philippines, or abroad if you work near BDO correspondent banks.
- Can be in pesos or U.S. dollars
- Initial deposit of 100 pesos for a peso account or $100 for a dollar account.
- No maintaining balance as long as you make at least 6 remittances a year.
- You will receive a passbook and an international ATM card.
Check BDO correspondent banks here.
BDO Remit Cash Card for OFWs
This card is similar to the regular BDO Cash Card,
but you can get this card abroad — in BDO accredited remittance
services.
This also has a higher load balance and deposit limit. While the
regular BDO Cash Card is limited to 10,000 pesos, BDO Remit Cash Card can be loaded with up to 100,000 pesos.
You can remit directly to this BDO Remit Cash Card account.
Your beneficiary can also check the status of your remittance
online at
https://www.bdocashcard.com/rts/remitinquire.asp
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Camiguin -- picture taken by mlbd01 of webshots.com
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