MANILA, Philippines (1st UPDATE)  – A regional trial court has allowed the transfer of Celso de los Angeles, who was implicated in masterminding the multi-billion Legacy fund scam, from a hospital where he was detained to a nearby residential condominium. 

Regional Trial Court of Cagayan de Oro, Branch 47 presiding Judge Florencia Abbu through a resolution last December 14, 2009, approved De los Angeles’ transfer to Unit 1703 of the Cathedral Heights Complex situated in the hospital compound, according to Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera. 

De los Angeles, a businessman turned Albay province politician, has evaded jail after a warrant of arrest was issued by the Cagayan de Oro court last year. Instead, he was allowed to stay at St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City to continue treatment of his throat cancer.

On Tuesday, Devenadera told reporters that the trial court agreed with the recommendation of De los Angeles’ attending physician who claimed that there is a need for the accused to be isolated because of his condition.

“There is no reason for the accused De los Angeles to be staying in another place. If he sick and he needs confinement, then he should be in the hospital, and if he sick and does not need confinement, then he must be in jail,” Devanadera told reporters when asked of the official position of the justice department on the matter.

A string of estafa cases—from simple to syndicated—were filed against the Legacy owner and other alleged cohorts for fraudulent transactions that summed up to around P14 billion. 

De los Angeles, his family members, and various company officials have been implicated for allegedly defrauding tens of thousands of depositors to the Legacy group’s rural banks all over the country, and thousands of investors to its pre-need financial products. 

New team

The case filed by Legacy clients and regulators—the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Company (PDIC)—has been compiled with by the justice department, which is pursuing the cases in court. The cases at the Cagayan de Oro court, which were filed by individual investors, including a judge, were not lumped with the case filed by the justice department. 

Devanadera said a new panel of prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Emilie Fe de los Santos has manifested and moved for a reconsideration of De los Angeles' confinement.

She explained that the panel was created in order to easily coordinate the prosecution of cases involving the Legacy group of companies.

“For better management of all these cases which are pending all over the country, we just decided that we come up with a panel of prosecutors, the same panel that will be going all over the country to attend to all the hearings on these cases,” the justice secretary said.

Devanadera added that she has instructed Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors to coordinate with government doctors to determine the real condition of De los Angeles.