MANILA - Sen. Manuel 'Mar' Roxas II criticized the Department of Justice (DOJ) resolution on an estafa case he filed against the owner and former executives of the beleaguered Legacy Group.

In a text message to abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak on Saturday, Roxas said the "DOJ is wrong to downgrade it to ordinary estafa."

On Friday, DOJ downgraded the case Roxas filed to simple estafa, a bailable offense, from syndicated estafa, a non-bailable offense.

The case that Roxas filed involved 20 respondents, thus meeting the requirement of a syndicated estafa case, or a conspiracy crime involving at least 5 people.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera approved on Friday the finding of "probable cause" to indict Legacy owner Celso de los Angeles and former Legacy executives, Christine Antenor Cruz-Limpin and Edgardo Marasigan, for violating Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.

The Philippine Star said De los Angeles Jr. and the other officers will be charged with 10 counts of estafa before the Manila Regional Trial Court on Monday.

Evade jail

There is already an arrest warrant served on de los Angeles and Limpin based on a separate case filed in Cagayan de Oro City.

De los Angeles, however, remains under "hospital arrest" after his throat cancer-related concerns manifested a few days before the arrest warrant was served last July.

De los Angeles will be able to evade another possible stay in jail while the court hears the simple estafa case that the DOJ will file.

Roxas noted, "This is another example of how the well-connected, together with government, screws the people."

The senator said he was referring to De los Angeles, a businessman-turned-mayor of a town in Albay province.

Consolidated

Last March, Sen. Roxas filed the syndicated estafa case on behalf of pre-need clients of Legacy Consolidated Plan Inc. (LCPI) at the Makati Regional Trial Court.

Roxas' case was eventually consolidated with the cases handled by the DOJ. Voluminous cases have been filed against De los Angeles and Legacy officials nationwide. Only the cases filed in Cagayan de Oro were not included in the consolidation.

The resolution on the Roxas case was the first that the DOJ has come up with since the first set of Legacy-related cases were filed at the DOJ over 8 months ago.

Simple estafa

Citing the DOJ resolution, a Philippine Star report said, “It has been shown how respondent De los Angeles managed to siphon the resources of the Legacy group through the withdrawal of company funds intended for his personal benefit."

Devanadera said prosecutors established during preliminary investigation the existence of a scheme where the group solicited investments from the 6 pre-need plan holders totaling P705,101 without delivering to them the proceeds.

The plan holders accused De los Angeles and the other Legacy officers siphoning off the funds for their own personal gain. - with a report from Edu Punay, The Philippine Star