WITH the demise of Celso delos Angeles, alleged architect of the Legacy scam, what fate awaits the victims in Davao and nearby areas said to have been gypped of money in the billions of pesos?
First off, death has exculpated the late Albay town mayor from whatever crimes he may have committed.
Legacy’s depositors, plan holders and “investors” will not exactly be left with an empty bag. A number of them in fact had earlier been lucky to get back a portion of the money they lost, thanks to the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation which coughed up some P10 billion of taxpayers’ money to refund at least deposits in rural banks.
However, it is still tough luck for so called “investors” who put in their hard-earned money, some of them proceeds from retirement, after being promised handsome returns.
Without the needed documents as proof, it is now next to impossible to recover their money.
There are many lessons learned from the scam and similar financial scandals that occurred during the last three years, starting with the supposed prestigious pre-need plan firms. Government regulators should know better this time around. Plan holders should always exercise vigilance and discrimination and see to it that the pre-need company they are dealing with have an excellent track record.
It would be cruel to tell the thousands of Legacy victims to their faces that they deserve their fate for having salivated over the “get rich-quick scheme” that eventually stripped them of the shirt on their back.
Either it was greed or naivete that led to their being fooled. But such does not diminish the crime. All victims deserve justice.
It is therefore incumbent on the authorities to pursue the cases against the associates of delos Angeles, especially those who benefited from the “scam”. These include those who also became “investors”–only to end up victims themselves twice over when the Legacy scheme collapsed.
Subscribe
Login
0 Comments
Oldest