Gov’t agencies must act on orders vs illegal investment schemes: councilor
A veteran lawmaker of Davao City Monday, May 27, warned law enforcement agencies to act on government orders directing the closure of offices of firms illegally soliciting investments victimizing hundreds of residents in various parts of the Davao Region and Region 12 or else face the consequences.
Councilor Danilo C. Dayanghirang, who topped the council derby in the Second District of Davao City for the fourth time in the May 13 midterm elections, said agencies mandated by law to protect the people from financial scams similar to the Ponzi pyramid scheme will be penalized for violating a lawful order if they fail to implement legitimate directives to close establishments for moneymaking activities without the proper government permit.
Dayanghirang made the warning during yesterday’s edition of Kapehan sa Dabaw media forum at SM Annex upon learning that operators of Kapa, Rigen and several other schemes continue to solicit investments despite the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission to padlock them.
In issuing the order, SEC has asked the assistance of the Department of Interior and Local Government as well as the Philippine National Police and local government units in places where the financial schemes are active. However, weeks after the orders were issued operators of the questionable investment schemes continue their activities unhampered by the PNP.
News stories coming out from Regions 11 (Davao) and 12 (SOCKSARGEN) reported that the investment solicitation continue allegedly because many PNP officers and men are themselves investors, lured by fantastic stories of payout or ROI (return of investment) wherein investors are reportedly getting profits as high as 400 per cent of their original investment.
Dayanghirang said the practice is dangerous, saying people never learned a lesson from past Ponzi schemes that have victimized thousands of people in the country. He cited the recent Legacy scheme wherein moneyed Dabawenyos lost money in the billions. Many of the prominent Dabawenyos were among the victims
The local lawmaker said there is no need to pass an ordinance to address the problem because there are already enough laws against syndicated estafa and related crimes.
Dayanghirang said that the people should realize that in a Ponzi scheme the only guys who would get back their investment are those are ahead of the others in investing, while those who invest late were lose their hard-earned money.
