SEC orders closure of 2 ‘Bongbong foundations’

In a bid to flush out violators of the securities law, the Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered the permanent closure of two non-stock foundations reportedly belonging to Alvin Almirante, who claims to be the real Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos.

This as the SEC cancelled the registration licenses of East Pacific AAA Foundation Inc. and West Pacific AAA Foundation for serious misrepresentation.

"Given our power to revoke under Section 6 of Presidential Decree 902-A for serious misrepresentation as to what the corporation can do or is doing to the great prejudice of or damage to the general public, we hereby opt to revoke the primary franchises of respondent foundations," the SEC said.

According to the SEC’s Compliance and Enforcement Department (CED), the two foundations represented themselves as administrators and recipients of gold and other properties of the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Prospective investors were promised free education, free hospitalization, free ATM card, and high salaries in exchange for P75 in membership fees.

The revocation of the certificates of incorporation of East Pacific and West Pacific was based on evidence gathered from their clients and the former associates of Almirante directly linking the fraudulent activities of the two foundations to Almirante.

According to the CED, the affidavit of Renato Llamado (a former associate of Almirante) manifested that Almirante had been inviting people to join the organizations with a promise of P500,000 in their bank account if they availed themselves of the group’s ID card. He said Almirante even intimated to him that he is the real Bongbong Marcos.

Llamado also put on record that the name Alvin Almirante was just an alias and that the latter’s real name was Alvincent Gooc Bersales. He said the name Alvin Almirante was used and signed in the incorporation papers of the respondent-foundations in violation of the law regulating the use of aliases.

As of end-December 2001, the two foundations had collected at least P150.33 million for membership fees alone.

The SEC Cebu extension office reported that the same foundations have established branches in Cebu and were soliciting investments from the public.

In his meeting with members, Almirante claimed that the foundations source their money from Marcos’ deposits amounting to $4 billion with the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.

However, Almirante, in a sworn statement earlier filed with the SEC, denied that the foundations have been promising to their members any reward regarding Marcos’ wealth.

Video footages of Almirante’s speeches taken in the foundations’ meeting in May 7, 2001 proved otherwise.

An excerpt of the transcribed speech made by Almirante said: "The mafia treats me like a king. . . It owns prime banks in Europe where our money are deposited."