The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it filed cases against officers and employees of four rural banks under the controversial Legacy Group but did not charge its owner, Celso de los Angeles, since the bank had yet to complete its investigation on the closure of rural banks under the Legacy Group.

Alfonso Penaco IV, Director of the BSP Office of Special Investigation, said the central bank has already investigated five of the 13 banks under the Legacy Group. "We have barely scratched the surface. For now, we are only investigating the 13 banks as instructed by the Monetary Board," he said in his testimony before the House of Representatives.

"With respect to the specific charges that we filed against this bank, we have not found any evidence that would link Mr. delos Angeles to these offenses. The charges are falsification and submission of false statements to the BSP," he added.

BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla earlier said de los Angeles is merely listed as a stockholder of at least two banks, the rural bank of Carmen and the Bank of East Asia, which both closed in December.

The BSP earlier said it had submitted various cases to the Department of Justice that would determine whether criminal charges could be filed in court against the Legacy banks.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco said 116 counts of falsification of public and commercial documents were filed along with two counts of false statements against 18 officers, employees, and agents of four rural banks belonging to the Legacy Group.

The banks were identified as the Rural Bank of Parañaque, Rural Bank of DARBCI in South Cotabato, Rural Bank of San Jose in Batangas, and Bank of East Asia.

Legacy founder and owner Celso de los Angeles was not included in the charges since he was not listed as an official or stockholder in any of the Legacy group of companies that were charged.

Tetangco said this was the second wave of charges filed against Legacy banks.

Last January 5, the BSP filed criminal charges against 16 officials, employees and agents for 49 counts of falsification of public and commercial documents, plus one case each of false reporting and false statement.

Involved in the first filing of charges were the Rural Bank of Parañaque; Rural Bank of San Jose in Batangas; Dynamic Rural Bank in Calatagan, Batangas; and Rural Bank of DARBCI in South Cotabato.

"The cases were filed as BSP’s investigations uncovered massive diversion of funds by said banks using fictitious loans," Tetangco said.

During the validation process, Tetangco said many of the banks’ borrowers denied having obtained loans from the closed banks while others admitted having signed blank documents in consideration of commission fees ranging from P10,000 to P15,000 for supposed loans amounting to millions of pesos.

Tetangco said the BSP also discovered that falsified documents were used to support alleged loans. Public documents falsified included Mayor’s Permits and Department of Trade and Industry Registration Certificates.

In effect, the fictitious loans were used to siphon money from the banks.

Named respondents by the BSP were RB Parañaque president Virgilio Odejar and vendor Marcos G. Ong; RB of San Jose, Inc. president Zacarias Carticiano; officer-in-charge Teodora Complex; compliance officer Jose Girlo Caramat and Roy Hilario, president of Fusion Capital Corp.

In the case involving RB of DARBCI Inc., the BSP filed cases against bank president William Escalante, manager Romarico Tañedo, cashier Phoebe Babor, accountant Jacqueline Araneta, Joey Corpuz (loans head), Filomena Duhaylungsod (loan officer) and agents Rebecca Corpuz, Enrique Sillo, Joy Melody Narvaez, and Perfecto Narvaez.

In the Bank of East Asia case, the BSP charged bank president Ernest Jurado Sr. and agent Jerry Piape.

The BSP earlier said that application of deposit secrecy laws in the case of the Legacy Group has set a dangerous precedent that could threaten the credibility and stability of the banking system.

Bank regulators said depositors of the Legacy Group of rural banks no longer have any hope of recovering their deposits and their only remaining hope was the payouts from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Co. (PDIC).

The dangerous precedents set by the Legacy case, according to BSP officials could pose more danger to depositors unless immediately remedied by Congress.