Legacy account holders urged to file claims

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) is calling on about 34,000 account holders of the 12 bankrupt Legacy banks to file their claims before the PDIC to speed up the processing of their claims, PDIC president Jose Nograles told the Senate yesterday.

In his testimony at the Senate committee on trade and commerce which is conducting a public hearing on the state of pre-need companies in the country, Nograles said the total deposits amounted to 12 billion. But there are doubtful accounts.

Out of the total 134,653 accounts from 12 bankrupt Legacy banks, an estimated of 51,847 accounts were already verified, meaning they are eligible for claims.

Nograles said the PDIC is ready to pay about P1.876 billion for the accounts they have verified so far.

From this number, 17,359 filed for claims, 13,970 were already paid.

According to Nograles, 34,488 or about 35,000 have not yet applied for claims wherein 80 percent have been validated accounts of with deposits of P15,000 and below.

Out of the 80 percent, 42 percent have deposits P500 and below; while 5,700 accounts have P500 to P1,000, involving about P4-million.

For accounts between P1,000 to P5,000, there are 8,339 accounts equivalent to P23.4 million in deposits; 2,853 depositors with  P5,000 to P10,000 in savings amounting to P23.8 million in deposits.

There are 1,149 accounts with P10,000 to P15,000  amounting to P21.12 million.

The PDIC appealed for the 35,000 account holders to apply for claims as Senate trade and commerce chairman Sen. Manuel Roxas Jr also urged the account holders to come out and pursue their claims.

During the hearing, Roxas advised the PDIC to seek the help of the media and be “be pro active” in looking for small depositors.