ROXAS: GOV'T MUST ACT FAST ON PRE-NEED PROBLEMS

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today proposed swift and decisive government action to save tens of billions of pesos of Filipinos' pre-need plan investments, including the filing of class action suits and tougher scrutiny of the books of pre-need companies.

Roxas said he will file Monday a resolution calling for a Senate investigation into reports that the pre-need industry is suffering from a P40-billion trust fund deficiency and acknowledgement by insiders that the industry faces collapse due to the impact of the global financial crisis.

He said the Department of Finance should take away the matter from the Securities and Exchange Commission and form a task force that will look into the pre-need industry's problems, including a tighter scrutiny of their financial books.

Those found to have put to unnecessary risk the investment of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in their pre-need products - education, health and retirement plans - should be charged immediately by the Department of Justice with grand-scale estafa, prevented from fleeing the country to escape prosecution and jailed if warranted.

"Mahalagang siguruhin nating ligtas ang pinaghirapang ipon ng mga planholder at ang kinabukasan ng kanilang mga anak (It's important to ensure the integrity of planholders' savings and their children's future)," he said. "Pero hindi yata mahalaga sa gobyernong ito dahil pinabayaan nilang mabulok ang pre-need industry (Unfortunately, the government seems to not find this important because it allowed the pre-need industry to rot)"

Ensuring the investment of Filipinos, particularly middle-class parents who wanted to ensure better education for their children, should be the priority of this government at this point when the effects of the financial meltdown has started causing hundreds of job losses daily, Roxas said.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque has said the job losses, which reached 15,600 from December 1 last year till January 19, was "no longer normal," and coupled with the collapse of the pre-need industry could trigger an avalanche of more economic and social disorders in the coming months, he added.

"We have known three years ago with the collapse of CAP and other pre-need companies that the industry was in bad shape because many of them engaged in rotten business practices. It really despairs me that again the government has proven to be a big disappointment," he said.

Roxas pointed out that the only way to rescue public confidence in the pre-need industry and the whole financial system is for the government to prove it could undertake these swift and decisive actions.

"Napakatanga naman ng gobyerno na alam na nitong may bagyong darating ay hindi pa naghanda. Nakakainis na alam na nitong malaki ang problema ng mga pre-need companies ay hindi pa ito kumilos. Ngayon, milyon na naman ang kinakabahan na mawawala ang kanilang pinaghirapang pera dahil wala na namang nagawa ang gobyerno (This government is so stupid not to prepare when it knows a storm is coming, It is so frustrating that we knew the pre-need companies have problems but it did not do anything. Now, millions fear they will lose their hard-earned money because the government did nothing)," the Ilonggo senator fumed.

The Department of Justice, he said, should be involved in this, and should determine appropriate criminal actions to be taken against pre-need companies and their officials who squandered the people's savings. The same should be done in the case of SEC and other government officials who let the catastrophe happen.

"Kung may dapat gawin si Secretary Raul Gonzales para pabanguhin muli ang pangalan ng DOJ, habulin niya ang mga taong nagpabaya sa kanilang tungkulin, opisyal man ng mga pre-need company o ng gobyerno mismo (If Gonzales should do something to save the reputation of DOJ, he should run after those who let this malaise happen, whether they are officials of pre-need companies or of the government itself)," he stressed.