Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Customers of Loyola Plans Consolidated, Inc. can breathe easy for now.
Loyola Plans has come up with a proposal to raise money so it can keep paying its 89,000 educational, pension, and memorial plans. It plans to sell P1.8 billion-worth of its prime properties to shore up its trust fund.
Loyola Plans principal shareholder Jesusa Puyat-Concepcion submitted the proposal herself on Monday (April 18).
The Insurance Commission (IC) accepted the troubled pre-need firm’s proposal and held off stopping its operations and putting it under a conservatorship.
It had initially given Loyola Plans until Tuesday (April 19) to prove it had the ability to continue meeting its financial obligations.
Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc said he was satisfied with Loyola Plans’ response so far.
The properties it put up for sale, once liquidated, would be more than sufficient to cover the P230-million shortfall in the trust fund.
“We will ensure that Loyola management will honor its commitment and that it will make good all its undertakings given to us,” Dooc said.
The titles of the properties will be kept with the IC or Loyola Plans’ trustee banks for safekeeping. They will only be released once sold, while the capital will be coursed back into the trust fund, Dooc assured.
Releasing long-delayed checks
As early as Monday afternoon, Loyola Plans began releasing some of their planholders’ long-delayed checks. On Tuesday, the IC will also give out checks to those who filed formal complaints with them.
Dooc estimates about 2,000 planholders have due and active claims with Loyola Plans. About a hundred of them sought assistance from the IC, with claims totaling up to P4 million.
However, in the Loyola Plans headquarters in Makati, the mood wasn’t as celebratory. Crowds spilled out the door and people waited in the scorching heat for a chance to file their claims.
Many of them traveled far since Loyola Plans closed down many of its provincial offices in a bid to bring down operational costs.
Checks not ready
Plan holder Emer Coloso said many of them were not told what requirements to bring or what payment options they had with their plans.
Even when planholders were able to file their claims, they were told their checks weren’t ready and they had to come back another day.
Coloso is waiting for two checks from Loyola Plans, dating all the way back to 2014.
“Naaawa ako doon sa mga taga-malayong lugar. Mga tiga-Pampanga, tapos papabalikin, tapos kapag balik, wala ding nangyayari.” [I feel bad for those who come from far away. Some came from Pampanga, and they were told to come back, and when they did, they still couldn’t get their money.]
For Evangeline Poschwitz of Laguna, she just wants whatever she can get back. However, like other planholders, she is locked into a payment schedule, and pre-terminating it would drastically reduce the benefits she is entitled to.
“Sabi ko nun, ipupull-out ko na. Ang kausap ko noon yung opisina sa Los Baños. Eh sabi nila, ang makukuha mo lang P40,000 lang, so ang laki ng mababawas eh P72,000 yung binayaran ko eh.” [I said before I would just pull out of the contract… I was talking to the branch in Los Banos then. They told me if I did that, I would only get P40,000 back. That’s a huge deduction, since I paid them P72,000.]
According to the planholders, it was good to know that Loyola Plans could return their money. But what’s more important for them is exactly when and how they can do that.
