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| Duped! |
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| Written by Lala Rimando | |
| Monday, 14 March 2005 | |
 Sometime in 1999, several parents were unaware that the money they entrusted to small pre-need companies would cause them headaches instead of giving them peace of mind. They were promised education or pension benefits of more than P100,000 each. But some of them received only token amounts of between P3,000 and P10,000. There are still a number who don’t know they’ve been duped. Their beneficiaries are not yet in college, so they are still not aware that the pre-need company they trusted has closed shop. About 45 of the 91 registered pre-need companies have already ceased operations. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was able to document only nine companies. Casualties are about 55,000 plan holders, excluding those who were sold plans that the pre-need companies were no longer authorized to sell, and those whose officers have vanished with their list of clients. Moises Talladen, secretary general of Nationwide Association of Consumers, remembers vividly those days because he helped set up a council to assist around 50 aggrieved plan holders process their claims with the pre-need companies. “The companies were bankrupt. Their trust funds [a pool of invested funds that should cover maturing obligations] were depleted. There was nothing much to run after. Some of the company officials disappeared,” he tells NEWSBREAK. At that time, there were efforts to file a class suit but the plan never pushed through as the number of those attending the meetings waned after they received token amounts from the companies concerned. Others were ashamed to accept that they had been fooled and just charged the whole affair to experience. None of those who mismanaged the pre-need companies were jailed or faced the consequences. INTERACT WITH THIS ARTICLE                |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 January 2009 ) |
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