RP's 'local Madoff' to stay in hospital

MANILA - A Philippine National Police (PNP) doctor said on Tuesday that Legacy owner Celso de los Angeles is very sick and cannot be moved from the St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City to the PNP General Hospital.

Dr. Louie Bautista of the PNP Health Service told reporters at the hospital that de los Angeles has stage 4 throat cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Bautista said that, according to Dr. Benjamin Campomanes, De los Angeles's attending physician, the Legacy owner has to undergo 27 sessions of radiation theraphy and needs to be closely monitored at the hospital because of the seriousness of his condition.

A radio dzMM report said Bautista is recommending to the PNP leadership to allow de los Angeles's stay at St. Luke's because he cannot  be given the proper attention he needs at the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame.
 
Bautista was accompanied by Superintendent Noli Romana of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) during the meeting with St. Luke's doctors.

A regional trial court in Mindanao has issued the first set of warrants of arrest against de los Angeles and 7 former executives of the Legacy Group of financial companies, which victimized thousands of investors nationwide.

The arrest warrants were served on de los Angeles on Monday at the St. Luke's Medical Center, but he was not brought to jail.

Local Madoff

De los Angeles is alleged to have masterminded a financial scam involving public funds deposited in his 12 rural banks and invested in his 3 pre-need companies and get-rich-quick schemes through an intricate web of interlocking corporations. Some of the siphooned funds—collectively worth over P30 billion—made its way into businesses with questionable business plans.

Previous senate hearings have revealed that some of the money culled from the public have also funded De los Angeles' political campaign expenses and his alimony for his estranged spouse. Politicians have taken on the cause of Legacy depositors and pre-need plan holders--a number of them lowly rural folks whose lifetime savings evaporated in a snap. 

Taxpayers will have to shoulder some P14 billion-worth of deposit insurance for Legacy rural banks' clients. The other Legacy investors will have to wait for liquidation proceeds of the companies' and Legacy officers’ assets—if the courts eventually convict them.

Overseas Filipino workers, military and police personnel, and even the government are among those caught in the Legacy mess.

De los Angeles, currently an Albay town mayor, has been touted as the local version of American billion-dollar swindler, Bernard Madoff. The disgraced Wall Street financier, who faced 11 criminal counts, has been recently sentenced to 150 years in prison.

De los Angeles, however, remained scott-free. Until now.

Independent doctor

Philip Piccio, president of Parents Enabling Parents (PEP) Coalition, said on Tuesday his group is planning to ask permission from the courts to ask for an independent doctor who will check on de los Angeles's real health condition.

Piccio told radio dzMM they are just waiting for an official statement from de los Angeles's doctors before filing the request.

"If it will take only 20 days, we can wait. But if the doctors will say that de los Angeles cannot be taken from the hospital, we have to ask for independent doctors from the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) or from the PNP," he said.

Piccio said the PEP Coalition will not stop pursuing the case against de los Angeles. He said de los Angeles is a test case for the group, which is also in a legal battle against the Yuchengcos' erstwhile pre-need firm Pacific Plans.

"He is our first. We intend to pursue this. There are bigger fish than De los Angeles. If they can't get De los Angeles, how are they going to go after the bigger fish?" he said.

Not feigning illness

Meanwhile, Noel Malaya, de los Angeles' lawyer, said on Tuesday that his client is not feigning his illness to avoid going to jail for various estafa cases.

"If you compare his picture now, you will see that he has lost easily 30 pounds. I will make an arrangement with my client so that people may see his real condition," Malaya told radio dzMM.

He said policemen served a set of arrest warrants against de los Angeles at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City on Monday. He clarified that the warrants of arrest were "implemented effectively."

"He has been arrested.... They have effected the warrants of arrest," Malaya said, explaining that de los Angeles was not brought to jail because of his current physical condition.

He said his client has two tubes--one inserted through his throat and another through his stomach--because of stage 4 larynx (throat) cancer.

He said de los Angeles has been undergoing chemotherapy since last month and was allowed to go on a 10-day "break from radiation therapy." But he was rushed back to St. Luke's on Monday after collapsing in his office in Sto. Domingo, Albay.

"Stage 4 cancer, with all the medical findings, I don't think it can be easily made up," Malaya said.

First arrest warrant

A regional trial court in Misamis Oriental issued a warrant of arrest dated July 8 against the following:

• Celso de los Angeles, Jr.
• Roy Hilario
• Edgardo Cando
• Christine Antenor Cruz-Limpin
• Namnama Pacetes-Santos
• Casilio Ponciano Carpio
• Eva Villapando
• Carolina Hinola

The lower court did not allow bail.

The arrest warrant was from a syndicated estafa case filed by Lilian O'Connor of Xavier Estates and Cagayan de Oro Judge Epifanio Nacaya and wife Florina. O'Connor is said to have lost millions of pesos and the Nacaya couple some "hundreds of thousands" from the Legacy companies' double-your-money-in-3-years scheme.

Cagayan de Oro city prosecutor Fidel Macauyag told ABS-CBN News, "It is now the ball game of the law enforcement agency. If they can bring to us the accused in these cases, the process of prosecuting them will be done."

Macauyag added that O'Connor's and the Nacayas' case have an addendum that named 9 more alleged accomplices. He said the warrants of arrest for the additional 9 former Legacy executives are likely to be issued next week.

Criminal, civil cases

De los Angeles and Legacy officers face about 50 civil and criminal cases from various Legacy investors and clients at local courts in different parts of the country.

Financial market regulators Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Securities and Exchange Commission have filed over 10 syndicated and large scale estafa cases at the justice department.

Preliminary investigations are still ongoing at the justice department, which is leading the intra-agency Task Force Legacy. The task force will determine if the complaints filed have merit before filing these in the courts.

The justice department, which is aggregating cases built up by the various regulatory agencies, earlier issued an order addressed to all regional state, provincial, and city prosecutors that all cases filed against de Los Angeles be centralized in its Manila headquarters.

Only those cases filed in Cagayan de Oro were exempted.

Court filing costs—which were considered steep by some Legacy depositors and investors in Cagayan de Oro—have pared down the previous 26 complaints to 2.

In April, De los Angeles said he has stage 4 throat cancer, thus cannot attend preliminary investigations and court hearings.

Senate custody

Piccio, meanwhile, denied that Legacy scam witnesses Carolina Hinola and Namnama Pacetes-Santos are in hiding.

Hinola and Santos are among the 7 people who were included in the arrest warrants issued against de los Angeles for cases of syndicated estafa.

The PEP Coalition head said the two are currently under the protective custody of the Senate. He said policemen would have to coordinate with Sen. Mar Roxas regarding their arrest warrants.

Piccio assured that the two witnesses are willing to accept the warrants of arrest. He added that they are planning to ask the court to consider the two as state witnesses against De los Angeles. -- with reports from Lala Rimando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak; Rod Bolivar, ABS-CBN Cagayan de Oro