Phil-Asia Care hikes capital to P150 M

Phil-Asia Care Plans Inc. is raising its capital to P150 million from only P3 million as it eyes a comeback in the local pre-need industry.

An SEC official said Phil-Asia is planning to revive its business as a way to legitimize its solicitation activities.

Phil-Asia came under fire from securities regulators for selling non-existent pre-need plans.

Formerly Consolidated Care Plans, Phil-Asia has had no pre-need plan available for sale since 1993 for failure to comply with SEC requirements. It has had no dealers licensed since 1996 and no authority to operate a branch.

It was only authorized to service existing plan holders from Dec. 23, 1993.

Earlier findings by the SEC showed that between November 2000 and January 2002, Phil-Asia sold pre-need plans to a number of individuals in violation of Section 16 of the Securities Regulation Code which requires registration of securities before selling the same to the public.

The Department of Justice itself has recommended the filing of criminal charges against certain directors and officers of Phil-Asia for unauthorized sale of pre-need plans, in effect upholding the SEC’s findings against the company, its president and general manager Vicente Afulgencia, its senior vice-president Leonisa Rana, and several agents.

The Justice Department said evidence showed that Afulgencia and Rana authorized the sale of Phil-Asia’s life plan agreements without prior approval of the SEC.

On the strength of the SEC order, the City Legal Officer of the Business Permit and Licensing Division of Pasig City withdrew the business permit of Phil-Asia and closed and padlocked the firm’s main office.

The issuance of the closure order was spurred by complaints that Phil-Asia continued selling pre-need plans to the public and collecting amortization from planholders despite a stay-order by the SEC.