The Parents Enabling Parents (PEP) Coalition on Monday opposed the Yuchengco Group’s planned acquisition of Philippine-American Life Insurance Corp. (Philamlife), saying that policyholders may experience the same fate as theirs when the pre-need firm Pacific Plans, Inc. declared bankruptcy.

"How can you trust these people? They don't have credibility. If they failed to rescue their own company, what more of Philamlife?" said PEP Coalition president Philip Piccio.

The PEP Coalition is composed of a group of plan holders who are yet to be repaid by Pacific Plans, a company owned by the Yuchengco Group.

The legal battle between Pacific Plans and its clients began when the company announced that it was facing financial difficulties in 2005, thus failing to honor its commitment to fund the education of about 35,000 educational plan holders. As a result, many plan holders were unable to enrol their children, while some were moved to public schools.

Philamlife, the largest insurance company in the Philippines, has a net worth of around P21.4 billion. Piccio said that if the Yuchengcos have that much money, they should be able to pay the 35,000 plan holders they victimized.

"They should first pay us before they buy Philamlife. After all, they have money to spend for it," he said.

Piccio said that the coalition is planning to gather its members to protest the possibility of a Yuchengco takeover of Philamlife. -- With a report from Jay Ruiz, ABS-CBN News