Pacific Plans resumes tuition assistance to planholders

Pacific Plans Inc. (PPI) has resumed its tuition assistance program under the court-approved rehabilitation plan filed with the local court.

In a statement issued yesterday, PPI said hundreds of beneficiaries have started availing yesterday of the additional tuition fee support payments from the P250 million fund contributed by Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco, the patriarch of the family that owns the Yuchengco Group of Companies.

"The move is consistent with our desire to address the needs of our availaing planholders," PPI spokesperson Jeanette Tecson said.

Of the total P591 million in funds allotted for payment to planholders, 72 percent or P426 million had already been availed.

PPI said that if the court approves its rehabilitation plan it will also initially provide a liquidity window of another P300 million to its traditional planholders.

Tecson pointed out that the pre-need firm’s move to file for rehabilitation was not meant to defeat planholders’claims but to ensure the expeditious and orderly payment of planholders’ claims.

PPI is also in discussions with several financial institutions to help raise funds for the pre-need firm.

It needs at least P300 million in fresh capital infusion to allow planholders the option to encash their entitlements under an exit mechanism that will convert their open-ended plans into a fixed-value plan contract.

The fixed-value plans will be secured by $51.8 million worth of Napocor bonds which are guaranteed by the government.