IC extends deadline for Prudentialife planholders

MANILA, Philippines - The Insurance Commission (IC) has extended the deadline for the submission of documents of planholders in relation to the liquidation of Prudentialife Plans Inc. (PPI) from end-October to Nov. 16 this year.

IC deputy commissioner and officer-in-charge Vida T. Chiong urged the PPI planholders to submit as soon as possible the original policy plan, the certificate of full payment, proof of availment or non-availment, other supporting documents, and affidavit of loss for planholders who lost the earlier mentioned documents.

San Diego, Ycasiano, Macias, Estorco, Castaneda and Sanchez Law Officer (Symecs Law), the legal counsel appointed by the IC as liquidator, requested the extension.

Last Oct. 19, the IC ordered the liquidation of PPI after it determined that the pre-need company was insolvent, after all efforts for its rehabilitation failed. Government has called for capital infusion on the trust funds supporting PPI’s education, pension and memorial plans. It likewise called on all interested parties to submitted rehabilitation proposals.

Formal rehab proposals received earlier this year from Loyola Plans Consolidated Inc., Manila Bankers Life Insurance Corp. (MB Life) and a group of planholders failed to convince regulators.

The IC again called for more proposals in September, resulting in new formal bids from the Phil Plans First Inc., Abundance Providers & Entrepreneur Corp. (APEC), Loyola Plans and MB Life. Once again, the IC and its appointed rehabilitator – Symecs Law – rejected all bids.

“We find that none of the proposals constitutes a viable rehabilitation plan for PPI that will enable it to safely operate and continue as a going concern, service its planholders, and restructure the trust funds such that the deficiencies are satisfactorily minimized, or at least their impact on the planholders, diminished,” the IC stated in its liquidation order.

Meanwhile, PPI filed a petition for review, with an application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) or court injunction, seeking to stop the IC from proceeding with its liquidation order.

The petition for a court injunction was filed last Oct. 19 at the seventh division of the Court of Appeals, or the same day that the IC issued the liquidation order.

“We have filed with the Court of Appeals a petition for review of the IC’s final order and resolution,” Amb. Francisco A. Alba, PPI chairman, said.

The petition is primarily aimed to determine whether or not the IC erred in rejecting the proposed rehabilitation plan of the PPI, which it believes would benefit the 300,000 planholders over a liquidation scenario.